That Fated Day
by take a break
Summary: When Finn saves Rory from a date with tristan what will happen when Finn Logan and Colin suddenly enter Steph and Rory's world. Rory finds herself surrounded by the world of the over-privileged, how will the Gilmore Girls handle the change? PDLD
1. Sweet Sixteen

It was late at night and Rory was lying in bed thinking about her upcoming sixteenth birthday, both her mother and her grandmother had arranged to throw a party for her. She knew that her grandmother's party would be a high society event and she would be dragged around the room to meet every guest in the house, her relationship with Emily Gilmore hadn't been long but her mother had tried to prepare her for the party on this upcoming Friday. She sat up and absentmindedly grabbed her phone and called her new friend Steph, they had met at Chilton on Rory's first day and immediately hit it off.

"Hello?" a chipper voice came through from the other end.

"Why are you so awake at this time, and hi." Rory said in a slightly less cheery tone.

"Oo, hey! What's going on is everything ok?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, I just wanted to make double sure you were coming on Friday? I don't want to walk into the lion's den alone, well I'll have my mum but she will probably get drink until my Grandma's insults just roll right off her, there's bound to be a million insults coming her way with all Grandma's friends there."

"Do you really think I would miss my friends birthday, plus mum would kill me if I didn't go, you know her always thinking about image and there's always good food, you have to admit its one of the highlights of the night." Steph said with slight resentment in her tone. "…And I'm bringing some friends."

"Really who? Do I know them?"

"I don't think you've met Finn, Logan and Colin yet have you?"

"Oh the three stooges, no I was beginning to think that they were your snufflupagus."

"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine." Steph said trying to sound offended until she burst out laughing. "Yeah they'll be there, their parents have dragged them back from boarding school for a week and when I told them I'd have to skip seeing them for your party so … they offered to come."

"Well as long as they are nothing like Bible Boy they are more than welcome, just more distractions for my Grandmother." Even though Rory hadn't been at Chilton long she had already begun to dislike Tristan DuGray.

"Nah, they aren't like him, they're really sweet." Steph decided to leave out the more revealing aspect of the trio's personalities, she hardly ever saw Rory detest anyone as much as Tristan and if she thought he was bad she could only imagine what she would think of Finn, Colin and Logan if she got on their bad side, so she hoped for the best this Friday.

"So what are the plans for after the little shin-dig at the Grandparents, are we still going back to your's for a movie night?"

"Yep, we're doing it upright, so much food it will rot your teeth and make your stomach explode and I think mum wants to go with T.V. Movies. You know, Duke's of Hazzard, Charlie's Angels and The Flinstones. You up for it?"

"Absolutely! You think I would miss your sixteenth birthday movie night? I'm hurt." Trying her best to sound weak, Steph and Rory continued to make plans for another half hour before deciding it was time to turn in and go to sleep.

Friday had come too fast and even though Steph had assured Rory that she would be there to take the heat off, Rory still had a feeling that something would go very wrong tonight. She quickly went over her pro-con list in her head and decided it was better to just go straight in and face the music. Literally, as Lorelai and Rory walked up to the house they could hear the sound of a string band playing from Emily's 'weird piano room'.

"We don't have to go in you know" Lorelai broke the silence first, "We could just leave and drive to the nearest boxing arena, or whatever they are called, and get beaten up a few times, same effect except your ego comes out better from the boxing thing."

"Mum it'll be fine, we'll go in and get out, it'll be like a college guy picking up a girl for the night. Plus we have to save Steph so we can drag her away for our T.V. movies." Rory pointed this out only because she wanted to get the whole night over and done with as soon as she could, but unfortunately that meant walking through the door.

"Fine" Lorelai was pouting at this point, "But don't say that I didn't offer." She tried to bat Rory's hand away as it reached for the doorbell. "Not yet, I cant face Adolph yet and you know that she will answer the door and immediately tell us how inappropriate our time of arrival and dresses are, and then we'll walk inside and she'll comment on the hair and make-up and 'Lorelai what are you doing with your life' and 'Rory why don't you come and talk to Mr Doosledorf? He comes from a lovely family, maybe you will want a summer wedding?' and this is before we even have time to get a drink let alone enter the living room."

"Ok, Ok mum take as much time as you want." Rory said as she quickly flew out her hand and rang the doorbell. "… before Grandma walks to the door." She added evilly.

"Great now we have to go in, ok quick you say that you were running late and make up a good excuse, they like you." Lorelai blurted out quickly before the door opened.

"Lorelai! Rory! … You're late."

"Hey Grandma sorry about that I just couldn't find the right shoes to wear with this dress."

"Well I'm surprised the two of you decided to wear shoes at all from the looks of your clothing, don't you own an iron Lorelai?"

"Yes Mum we do, but Albert and I aren't on the best of terms, after he burnt me the last time I just haven't been able to forgive him."

"Really Lorelai, this is not the time or place for your nonsense. Now come on Rory I'd like you to meet a few people and talk to all of your guests." Emily's demeanour had certainly changed the minute they stepped inside the living room.

Rory was introduced to what seemed like hundreds of boring guests (Which in reality was only ten minutes) until someone flew into her and hugged her so hard she almost fell over. "Hey Steph." she said still a bit shell shocked from almost being knocked off her feet. "Gee is the party going well or what?" she said her voice dripping with sarcasm as Steph finally let her go.

"You are not leaving me for the rest of the night!"

"That bad huh?"

"My parents have already tried to introduce me to 4 society boys that they would approve of for any marriage I may want in the future, I refuse to be married off tonight."

"I thought that you were bringing Logan, Finn and Colin?"

"Apparently their families got invited as well so they should get here soon. Even after they get here though I refuse to let you leave my side, my parents wouldn't try and introduce both of us to more guys … I don't think."

"Mary!" Came a male voice form behind the two girls.

"Hey here comes your favourite person Ror." Steph knew exactly how much Rory detested Tristan and wasn't surprised when Rory rolled her eyes and made a gagging noise as she slowly turned towards the boy.

"Tristan is there anything I can do for you? Maybe nudge you off a nice cliff." She mumbled the second part under her breath.

"What was that Mare? Anyway I was thinking since it's your birthday and all maybe you'd finally ease up and agree to go to a movie with me tomorrow night."

"Rory are you double booking our date for tomorrow night? I'm heart broken." Came an unfamiliar accent from beside Steph. She turned to see a tall brunette standing, staring at her, and obviously trying to get her to catch on.

"Of course not sweetie." Emphasising the use of the word 'sweetie'. "But you have cancelled so many times I never know if its gonna happen." Finn was taken aback when he looked into her startling blue eyes as she turned to him; she looked beautiful he admitted to himself.

"I did that once and it wasn't my fault."

"Uhuh that's what you always say." Finn was amused by how casually she said all of this.

"Because it's always true."

"If you say so."

"Since you've had a temporary lapse in manners I'll introduce myself." The boy said turning to Tristan. "Finn Rothschild, nice to meet you…"

"Tristan, Tristan DuGray" he said snapping out of his trance. "Um I think I need to go get a drink, anyone want anything?" after everyone shook their head Tristan walked away.

"Thankyou so much for that, you have no idea how much I owe you." She blurted out as she shook his hand, "I'm Rory by the way. So you are one of the illusive three stooges I've heard so much about. Finn right?"

"Well at least we aren't the musketeers and don't have to wear those ridiculous hats, imagine what they would do to my hair."

"Oh but I think the moustache would suit you perfectly."

Finn shrugged off the comment. "So your our competition aye. Steph won't shut up about you whenever we talk, I probably know more about you then you by now."

"Yeah sorry about that."

"Hey anything to keep off the topic of the latest guy she snagged. Especially when Colin is in the room 'cause man does he get in a bad mood after any of those conversations." He whispered to her while Steph was talking hurriedly to two guys standing in front of her.

Steph finally re-entered the conversation. "Rory I want you to meet Colin, Finn and Logan."

"Hey not fair why did Finn get first dibs? If you need anything," Logan said addressing Rory, "Just come to me don't even worry about these two clowns."

"Happy birthday anyway Rory, although I can't imagine a worse way to have to spend your sixteenth birthday."

"Didn't you have a party like this on your birthday?" Rory said confused, these guys were certainly from society so she couldn't imagine why their families would not want them to have a party like this.

"On my birthday I was at boarding school in Australia, Logan was at Andover and Colin was in Switzerland. We didn't even have to see our family for a few weeks at that stage." Said Finn winking at the gorgeous girl in front of them.

"Boarding school that sounds exciting."

"Some of the best years of my life doll, the boys and I had a blast until our parents sent us to separate continents after the little chem. Lab mix-up."

"Chem. lab mix-up?"

"Hey it wasn't our fault, who knew that potassium could make such an explosion in the girls bathroom."

"Who knew" Rory said nodding her head.

"Rory who is this exotic sounding man you are talking to?" Came Lorelai's voice from behind Rory.

"Mum its not like he is Heath Ledger or anything."

"Love I am hurt, I thought I meant more to you than him." Said Finn feigning a pain in his chest.

"Aww Finny, you may not be Heath, but you are just as hot."

"You know just what to say to win a guys heart." He said putting his arms around her shoulders.

Logan and Steph stood back watching the scene unfold with amusement. When Lorelai walked over he was shocked to hear Rory call her mum, he knew that Emily's daughter had her daughter when she was young but he didn't expect her to be that young.

"Logan are you ok?" Rory was suddenly standing next to him while Steph, Finn, Colin and Lorelai were in a heated discussion about salmon puffs which had just made their way around to the guests. She had put her hand on his shoulder and he looked at it before responding.

"Yeah I'm fine, sorry I just zoned out for a minute there."

After standing and talking with the four friends, Lorelai came back to get Rory and Steph so that they could leave. "What are you boys doing for the rest of the night?" She said as she turned towards them, when she saw the confused looks on their faces she continued, "If your not busy and your up for it why don't you come back to ours for our movie night. The girls are really excited aren't you girls?"

"It'll be great Lorelai throws the best movie nights!" Steph said as Rory nodded in agreement next to her.

Colin spoke up first, "It sounds great as long as Rory doesn't mind?" He said turning to her.

"No not at all, you guys are more than welcome to come."

"Ok well I'm game"

"Me too." Said Finn and Logan at the same time.

"Think they will be able to handle it?" Rory said to Lorelai loud enough so that the other four could hear what they were saying. "The last person that tried to keep up with us passed out from the sugar coma."

"Hey, it was not as bad as you make it sound, it was 4:30 in the morning I was tired." Steph protested.

Lorelai, Rory and Steph arrived at the "Crap Shack" first. The boys needed to go home and change. As they walked into the house Lorelai and Rory were already making plans on what was needed for the night's festivities. After Lorelai had left the girls were sitting in Rory's room getting ready for the movie night.

"So what's the deal with you and Colin?" Asked Rory suddenly out of the blue.

"What? … Nothing" Steph replied none too convincingly.

"Uhuh so the looks that you were giving each other all night were nothing at all then huh?"

"He was looking at me?"

"HA! I knew it, spill." Rory said almost jumping on the bed where Steph was brushing her hair.

"It's really nothing, you know he just … I dunno he makes me feel different."

"Different is good right?"

"Well yeah but sometimes …" before Steph could continue she was cut off by the doorbell.

As they went to get the door Rory and Steph could hear arguing on the other side and decided to wait and hear what was going on first before letting them inside.

"No she is not better!!" "Well if you would rather date a possessive control freak then fine, but Phoebe is so much better than Monica." "But Monica is hott" "What are you talking about! How can you say that when the Australian beauty Elle MacPherson was on the show!" Came the muffled voices from the other side of the door.

Rory slowly opened the door, "You are seriously standing here talking about F.R.I.E.N.D.S? Do I even want to know."

"Well love, we were talking about death and death led to assassins and assassins led to brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and they led to Jennifer and Jennifer led us to your front porch." Said Finn with a mischievous smile on his face.

As Rory stepped inside the boys entered the living room and immediately saw all the food lying on the table and floor.

"Um Rory who is going to eat all that food? Its enough to feed an army or soldiers." Said Colin with a worried look on his face.

"Or Two Lorelai's" said Steph knowing how much the two could eat. "Lorelai just stepped out to get the rest of the food before we start."

"Mummy's home and she comes bearing supplies, daughter of mine…!" she said spotting Rory, "Come take these from Mummy they're ever so heavy." She said in her best damsel in distress act.

Once all the food was laid out the six of them managed to get comfortable, Lorelai and Logan spread out on the couch refusing to let anyone else sit there. Steph and Colin sat in the armchair together, Rory trying to remember to take a picture of them together if they happened to fall asleep. Rory and Finn were left on the ground spread out on an air mattress.

As the first movie went in and the boys started talking about whether the Charlie's Angels original or remake was better the 3 girls sitting in the room looked at them as if they had three heads.

"What's wrong doll?" asked Finn noticing the stare he had earnt from Rory.

"You can't talk on movie nights it's a rule, that's like asking mother Theresa to listen to death metal music or something."

"I think she should welcome the experience."

"Doesn't mean she will."

"Fine talk but if this was Casablanca, or Paris When It Sizzles, or any classic really you would not be awake right now." She said teasingly.

"I understand completely doll."

After that everything went smoothly, the boys continued to talk the entire time, none of them managing to sit still for more than five minutes at a time. By the time they had watched the Duke's of Hazzard and Charlie's Angels, Colin, Steph and Logan were sound asleep, somehow Finn had managed to wrap his arms around Rory and was holding her possessively against him.

Lorelai got up and said goodnight to the two teens and went to bed. As she left Rory quickly got up and went to get her camera taking several shots of Colin and Steph before putting it away and turning to face Finn. He was staring at her and she gave him an awkward smile before walking the short distance back over to him. As she lent down to sit back down on the mattress, Rory felt a hand go around her wrist and she looked up at Finn having no time to think before his lips came crashing down on hers a second later.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to do that the first time I saw you love." Not giving her a chance to respond before kissing her again.


	2. The Plan

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Gilmore Girls or the characters._

The morning after her birthday Rory woke to a loud crash in her living room. Slowly getting out of bed she immediately moved to put on, Teddy. Then walking into the living room she found the source of the noise, the boys were having a pillow fight after Finn had pulled Logan off the couch to claim it for himself. Steph sat amused watching the boys in front of her when she saw Rory walk into the room.

"Uh guys?" Rory said cautiously, "Do you want me to get you some nail polish you can have mani-pedis while you talk about your feelings after your done with your pillow fight of course… It'll be a very masculine colour I promise."

"I'm thinking watermelon pink." Came Steph knowing how much it would irk the guys. "Hey!… Mean" came a muffled voice after she had three pillows hit her.

At this Rory just shook her head and left to get her coffee. By the time Steph, Logan, Colin and Finn had finished tidying and came into the kitchen, Rory already had a second pot of coffee brewing.

"You gonna slow down there love? All that caffeine might rot your insides and we wouldn't want that now would we."

"Don't ever ask her to slow down with coffee Finn, if they had a step program it would be named after the two youngest Gilmore Girls … That I know for sure."

"Hey! It isn't an addiction, it's a love affair, passion, devotion, worship … choose a suitable term of affection and insert here." Rory exclaimed, downing another cup of coffee. She refused to look up because she knew that Finn and the others would be looking at her. "Luke's?"

"You're running out of coffee in the house aren't you?"

"Shut up Steph, hurry up and get ready, faster we get out of here the faster we get breakfast."

"You heard her boys" Logan said jumping out of his seat. "About face and… Left, left, left, right, left…"

"Rory and Steph just looked at each other until Rory broke the silence, "Hey they were your friends first." And walked into her room.

An hour later the five teens walked out of the house on their way to Luke's. Steph and Rory walked in first, with the other trailing behind them. They walked over to Lorelai who had pulled three tables together in order to make enough space and was arguing with Luke.

"If Kirk really wanted the table he wouldn't have stood up and gone to the bathroom, he brought it upon himself."

"Lorelai!"

"Luke!" she said mocking him, after this Luke just walked away and let the kids sit down.

Rory sat down next to Lorelai and started talking about Luke withholding their coffee supply and what they would do to make him pay. Finn slid into the seat next to her and the others followed suit. As he sat down the two women sitting at the table immediately turned their attention to the rest of their party.

"So… Food?"

"Um yeah" said Steph placing her order first.

Once everyone had finished ordering Rory and Lorelai smiled at each other evilly.

"I'll have chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and eggs… scrambled please, a danish and raisin toast" said Lorelai smiling at Luke "and coffee please. Lots and lots of it."

"ooh me too but can I also get a donut?" Rory asked innocently.

He other four people at the table just stared at the two girls. Colin spoke up first, "You two aren't really going to eat all of that food are you?"

"Why wouldn't we? Gilmore girls don't make it a habit to waste food."

"But each of you ordered more than the four of us put together." Said Logan expecting that the girls would change their order and admit they wouldn't end up eating the food.

Stephanie was staring at Lorelai, "I knew that your daughter could put it away but I didn't know that the trait ran in the family.

"Wait doll, are you saying the younger Gilmore always eats like this?" Finn said with a slightly proud smile dancing on his lips.

Luke came out with the food and the four teens snapped out of their shock to enjoy breakfast. As the meal finished the six people sat at the table talking and laughing quite loudly until Lorelai announced that she needed to go to work, after Rory had sat back down after saying goodbye to her mum, Finn's hand slid over onto her knee and began to trace circles making her skin tingle. When Finn looked over to Rory he saw a slight blush creep onto her cheeks and smiled at the thought that he was the one that put it there.

After a long conversation about the best kind of donut the kids decided to head out and enjoy the town before lunch came around. Walking down the street Finn put his arm around Rory's shoulders as they headed towards Miss Patty's dance studio. As they came to the studio Miss Patty came out to see Rory walking with a strange boys arm still around her, Steph and two other new boys walking towards her.

"Rory, who are your friends, its not everyday you find men as attractive as this wandering the Hollow now do we." she said winking at Logan.

The five kids stood there listening while Miss Patty filled in the boys on the gossip of the town (Steph had already heard it from Rory). As the kids went to leave Rory saw Logan and Colin jump out of the corner of her eye and started laughing.

"Haha it hurts doesn't it?" she asked them, knowing that Miss Patty would have pinched them.

"You could have warned us that some woman was going to harass us you know." Said Logan rubbing his butt gingerly. "Hey why didn't Finn get pinched?"

"Because mate, she thought that I was far too good to touch, so she _settled_ with the likes of you two." Said Finn winking at Rory, who just rolled her eyes and turned to walk down the street again.

After spending the afternoon looking around the town, another run in with Miss Patty and a quick lunch at Luke's the boys left to spend the rest of the weekend at home, 'suffering' as they put it with their families there. When the boys had finally pulled away from town in Logan's car (He had a driver) the boys started discussing the upcoming week, the boys were being sent to St. Thomas More boarding school in Oakdale to 'straighten themselves out' as Mitchum put it.

"Do they really expect us to want to stay in an all boys school, I mean all BOYS! I think it speaks for itself, we'll be out of there faster than rain in a desert." Said Colin already trying to plan for some horrendous prank they could pull that would not only get them out of STM but also keep them out of any of the other all boys schools.

"Well all I can say is I hope they don't expect it to stay all boys for long" said Logan smirking at the idea.

The boys continued to make plans to get kicked out of yet another prestigious boarding school, while the girls were still at Rory's house talking about the last couple of days and making plans for school on Monday.

"How come you don't go to school with Colin, Finn and Logan?" Rory asked having meant to the previous night when they were talking.

Steph just laughed, "If I went with them to every boarding school that they have been kicked out of I wouldn't have been at one school for more than a month after the first three schools I gave up and just came to Chilton. I always try and convince them to come there with me but they never want to, it would mean that they would have to live at home. Not a big selling point when it comes to those three." She sighed.

"How many boarding school shave they been to, they couldn't have gotten kicked out of that many schools right?"

"I dunno, after Logan had gotten kicked out of pre-K, I still don't know how, he refuses to tell me the story. I will find out though, alcohol is a great thing, anyway what was I saying? Huh oh yeah they didn't start getting kicked out of school until about three years ago I think last time I checked they were at nine schools, mind you that was last year that I stopped counting." Said Steph knowing that Rory would be shocked when she told her.

She wasn't disappointed as Rory sat there with her mouth open trying to think of something to say to that. _Nine schools?_ She thought, _how is it possible for any one person to get kicked out of nine schools_.

"Uh Ror? You still in there?" Steph was looking at Rory worrying.

"Yeah sorry just spaced out for a minute there." Rory started as she came out of her trance. "Ready for round two of the Gilmore Girl's movie weekend?"

"Ha yeah let's do it." Jumping off the couch and racing into the living room to start the first movie of the night.

The rest of the weekend the girls talked and made jokes, remembering last thing on Sunday that they had homework due for the next week of school.

Walking into school on Monday Rory knew that it would not be a good day, she had woken up late and had to rush to catch her bus without having gotten any coffee before leaving the house.

"Hello Mary," came a voice from behind her as she walked down the hallway towards her locker.

"Tristan get away from me." She snarled trying to get her message across.

"You mad at me or something?"

Rory just rolled her eyes and continued down the hallway.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to go get something to eat sometime after school this week."

"I have a better idea, how about you just leave me alone."

"Oh come on Mary you know that you would miss me too much if I left."

"Please tell me you will try and test that theory sometime soon."

"Nah sorry, but if you want I would like to test another theory I have of you." He said raising his eyebrows with the innuendo.

Rory turned her head and looked at him, it was time to play dirty. When Tristan started to walk away she put her lips next to his ear and whispered in a low seductive voice, "Trust me whatever theory you have, you wouldn't be able to keep up with me." And she turned and started towards her next class leaving Tristan standing in the hallway speechless.

As she entered the classroom she saw Steph smirking at her and went to sit down, "Nice show you put on with Tristan, he so wants you. I can't believe you have three guys trying to get you and I have none."

"You have Colin, and what are you talking about three guys, the way I see it I have one. Tristan and the only reason he is trying to get me is to prove some stupid point to his friends." Said Rory hoping that Steph would just move on from the conversation.

"Oh please what about that guy that has been staring at you in your town since you left his school to come here. He's kind of creepy but he's cute."

"He doesn't want me, I don't know why he keeps staring like that, you're right he is kind of creepy, and don't think I've forgotten that we are talking about Colin after this." She said smirking knowing Steph would have hoped she'd forgotten. Rory had been trying all weekend to get Steph to talk to her about her relationship with Colin, every time she just brushed it off as being non-existent saying he'd never like her like that.

"Right," she said offhandedly. "But then there is also Finn, who couldn't stop staring at you all weekend. He wants you too. That would be so cute, and plus you could try and convince him to say Aussie slang for us. He won't do it any more, after Logan spent an entire night trying to convince him to say 'Gather up the Sheilas and we'll throw another shrimp on the barbi' he swore off saying anything like that anymore."

"You know they probably don't talk like that right?"

"What are you talking about? Why wouldn't they?"

"Did Finn say those things without prompting when he first came here?"

"Uh no … I dunno, I don't think so."

"See they probably just speak the way Finn does normally."

"With excessive amounts of profanity and slurring?"

Rory just rolled her eyes and turned to the front of the classroom for the start of the lesson.

At lunch Rory sat down across from Steph who was talking animatedly on her mobile before seeing Rory and waving. Rory just giggled and started eating until she hung up the phone. "Good Talk?"

"Colin called to say they had gotten kicked out of boarding school."

"Wasn't this their first day?" Rory asked in disbelief that they could have gotten kicked out of the school in such a short amount of time.

"Please at an all boys school? It would have seemed like weeks to them." Steph laughed at Rory's expression as she said this.

"So what did they do?"

"He wouldn't tell me the details but I think it had something to do with some female strippers and their principal." When she saw Rory's face drop she added, "They'll be fine Ror, I mean they'll get an earful from their parents and might have their trust funds threatened but other than that they'll live. Don't look so worried."

"How are they going to get into college?"

"Rory, you would be surprised how well all of them are doing in school, they all have great GPA's do extra credit work when they need to, they're set."

"Extra credit on top of what? They aren't getting anything else."

"They have tutors." Steph said simply.

"Okay, okay." The girls sat and ate in silence until Rory added, "So Colin huh?" Steph just rolled her eyes and started talking about their next shopping adventure.

By Wednesday Rory had created a studying bubble in her room for the night, Lorelai had begged her to come out and play with her but she had stubbornly stood her ground saying that she needed to get her work done. After hours of work she sat there trying to get through a paper on modern literature when her phone broke the silence. She looked at the caller id not recognising the number, "Talk fast, make it short and sweet." She said trying not to sound too agitated.

"Is that any way to greet someone as exotic and handsome as me love? I think my heart is going to break into two at any moment."

"Finn? How did you get my number? Is everything ok?"

Yes love it is I, although I can hardly imagine how you would be able to forget me, everything is fine, and I am a Rothschild, I have my sources." He said laughing into the phone, "Actually the reason I called you is to see whether you wanted to come to Colin's birthday party tomorrow night, I can guarantee you my engaging company and also the company of your dear friend Steph. Logan and I also wanted your help on something wen you got here if that was ok?"

"Will it be legal? Because after hearing some stories I think I may have to start asking that in advance before agreeing to anything with you three." She said half joking.

"Of course it will be love, it involves a certain blonde and short brunette. Can't give away too much of the plan in advance though. So will I have the honour of your wonderful company for the evening doll?"

"Uh sure, what time is it?"

"It starts at seven so I can pick you up around 6:30 and fill you in on the way if you want."

"Sounds great," she said nervously, glad that he couldn't see her face at this moment. "I'll see you then."

" 'Til tomorrow, night doll."

Rory stood in front of her closet as she looked over at her clock, 5:40, only fifty minutes before Finn arrived to pick her up. "Mum!"

"What is it? I was just calling for pizza."

"I have nothing to wear! I have a million clothes and nothing to wear!"

"I'm sure we can find something, hmm…ahuh…here what about this?"

"How did you do that? I have been staring at those clothes for the last twenty minutes and you just come in and find the perfect outfit."

"Years of practise, if your lucky I might teach you young padawan."

"Thanks Mum."

Five minutes before Finn was expected to arrive Rory walked out into the kitchen ready to go. When the doorbell rang Lorelai answered it and led Finn into the kitchen. He looked puzzled when he saw her sitting at the table.

"Ready to go Finn?" she asked amused by the look on his face.

"Uh yeah, but don't you need a few more minutes or something?"

"No I'm ready to go."

"I don't think I've ever picked up a date that was dressed and ready to go by the time I got here." He said noticing that she blushed when he referred to her as his date. He just smiled at her and offered her his hand. "Did you want her back by any time Lorelai?"

"Not too early, give me a call if for any reason you won't be home by twelve though."

"Will do, on we go my lady, our chariot awaits."

He led her out of the house and down to the Limo that awaited them. She felt tingles down her spine when his hand touched the small of her back as she got into the limo. He got in after immediately moving to sit next to her resting his hand on her knee.

On the way to the party he filled Rory in on the details of the plan that Logan and himself had concocted. Involving a game of I never, and a drunken game of truth or dare. She shook her head knowing that this was somehow going to bite the boys in the arse and decided she needed to step in to help Steph, realise her feelings for Colin, and save her from total humiliation.

When they stepped into the hall that Colin had rented out for the party, Steph immediately came up to her and Finn demanding to know why they were late. They looked at each other and decided something must have happened to tick her off. After they had calmed her down enough to lead her over to get a drink, Rory realised that their job to make Steph jealous had been made a lot easier by Colin himself. He was on the floor dancing with a petite blonde that was whispering in his ear and shamelessly flirting even from thirty metres away. Steph turned and ordered a shot before thanking the bartender and downing the shot handed to her, she turned to Rory who had a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Why don't you go and ask him to cut in, I'm sure he wouldn't mind getting away from the blonde bimbo he's dancing with." She said hoping that Steph would finally go and talk to him.

"No, I think I'll just go and get some air." At this she walked out of the hall and to the back veranda hoping she had gone unnoticed. When the door slid opened she sighed, "Rory I really don't want to talk about it, if he wants to be with her there's nothing we can do about it, he thinks we're just friends anyway." As she said that a pair of arms wrapped around her and she turned to see Logan looking back at her.

"I'm not Rory, but I kinda know where you're coming from. All I hear is how you're too good for him and how you could never think of him as more than a friend. It's about time one of you admitted it. Steph, if you want him go get him! That girl could never compete with you, he loves you babe, you just have to let him know." He said this all kindly looking her straight in the eyes to show that he meant every word.

Steph turned and hugged him until he told her it was time they go inside, she nodded and followed him in looking around the party not able to find Colin. Logan led her over to where Rory and Finn were sitting at a table talking about one of Finn's many adventures with the boys. They both smiled when they saw Steph and Logan come towards them, when they sat down Rory started to try and gather info on little adventures Steph had been on with them. The four friends sat there talking for an hour before 'homeless heart' started playing.

"Would you like to dance love?" Finn said getting out of his seat and offering his hand to Rory, he smiled as she took his hand and led her onto the dance floor, pulling her close he felt like he had everything he needed min his arms right at this minute. The thought made him a bit uncomfortable, yet he liked the feeling of knowing she was standing there with him. They stood there moving to the music for two songs before he slightly pulled away from her to look into her eyes.

When Rory started to feel Finn pull away she looked up at him and saw his eyes cloud over, she smiled at him and he slowly lowered his head until his lips lightly touched hers. Rory felt her knees go weak; the kiss was soft and passionate as Finn pulled her body even closer into his.

He didn't want to let her go he had been imagining kissing her all night, but nothing he had imagined had even come close to this. His head was spinning as he swept his tongue across her lips begging her to let him in, when she did he slowly started to deepen the kiss as he heard her quietly moan into his mouth. He pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers and was about to say something when Steph ran up to Rory crying and frantically saying something about a coat and blonde and never again.

Rory was shocked to see Steph standing there crying she hugged her and led her off the dance floor motioning for Finn to follow them, he nodded and stayed back a few paces until Logan fell into stride next to him.

"What happened? A second ago she went to find Col… oh shit." Finn and Logan just looked at each other and hoped that what they were thinking wasn't true.

They caught up with Steph and Rory as they got their coats.

"Steph do you wanna pick up your things and come stay at mine tonight? Mum wouldn't mind, we could eat Ben&Jerry's and watch sappy chick flicks that make Mum cry."

Steph laughed slightly and nodded. She turned to Logan and Finn, "You guys are welcome to come too, although it's only 10:30 so you probably want to stay here huh?"

"We'd love to come love, you take the limo and Logan and I will go and pick up some things for tonight." He wanted to talk to Rory if they got the chance, the sooner the better.

Rory smiled and nodded leading Steph out to the limo and telling the boys she'd meet them back home.


	3. food courts, concerts and movies

_Sorry it took so long to put this chapter up, things have been hectic with school. But here it is, I hope its ok._

_Kat_

_-xxx-_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_

oOo

Rory watched as Steph sat on the couch staring at a spot on the carpet as if it held all of the answers to her problems. On the way home Steph didn't talk about anything and every time Rory tried to cheer her up or comfort her, another tear would roll silently down her face.

About twenty minutes after the girls arrived home the boys pulled up outside Rory's house. "Hello the Crap Shack!" Finn yelled despite how late it was.

"Shh, do you wanna wake up the whole town?"

"Well if that would make our dear friend Stephanie feel any better then all the better. Now where is she so I can find out who made her cry and beat the crap out of him… or her whichever it was."

"Finn! I already told you, you are not beating up Colin no matter how much it would make her feel better." Logan sighed rolling his eyes as he came up to Rory and hugged her.

The three kids went into the house to start their wallowing night and try and help Steph. As they came inside Rory noticed that Steph had moved from the living room, she walked into the kitchen and saw Steph staring at her phone as it sung happily on the table, as Rory went over to pick it up, she noticed Colin's name flashed on the caller id.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ror, why are you answering Steph's phone?"

"Uh just shaking things up a bit, nah, Steph is a bit busy so I thought I'd answer. What? Not happy to talk to me?"

"Uh no it's fine, I was just wondering where you guys got to I haven't seen you or Steph for hours."

"Uh it was just getting a bit too much for us there, so we just decided it was best to retire for the night, you're not mad are you?"

"No, um… well I'll see you guys at school tomorrow then huh."

"Yeah, night Colin."

"Night Ror."

She turned to Steph and saw her face begin to fill with colour again. "Ready to start our wallowing night? We will watch three fabulously sappy chick flicks, eat so much food that we won't be able to move for an hour after we've finished, and then get up for school tomorrow and walk with our heads down from the sugar hangover we will have from tonight." Rory said as Steph gave her a small smile.

For the rest of the night Steph, Finn, Logan and Rory sat in the living room making jokes and trying to forget everything that had happened from earlier tonight. After a few hours Steph wanted to talk about what had happened and told the guys that they couldn't kill their best friend when Finn got up and walked to the door. When the girls left to sleep in Rory's room everyone finally fell asleep feeling a little better about what had happened.

oOo

For the next few days Steph stayed at Rory's they went to school together on Monday after having avoided the topic of Colin at all costs during the rest of the weekend, every time Colin would call Steph just stared at her phone and refused to answer it even to talk to him. By Wednesday Steph had started to feel better about the situation between her and Colin and when he called for what seemed the hundredth time since Thursday night she finally picked up the phone. Rory sat across from her with a comforting smile half shocked that Steph had so easily picked up the phone to talk to him.

"Hey Colin." She said

…

"Yeah I've been really busy at Rory's this week."

…

"No nothings wrong really I just needed to get a few things done this week." She said into the phone rolling her eyes at Rory with a small smile.

…

"Yeah Finn and Huntz mentioned it but I haven't heard anything since then."

…

"We could go shopping." Steph said perking up a bit. "Oh come on, you know you wanna buy me something pretty."

…

"Oh well if you insist, it could be like an I miss you present huh?"

…

"Ok yeah, see you then."

…

"Bye Col."

She looked at Rory and half smiled, "So you know how you love me and everything." She started in a sickeningly sweet voice that would make the Grinch give her a hug. Rory just nodded knowing that she would be tagging along with her and Colin to whatever mall she was likely to drag him to.

"Yes Steph I'll be there, man how many favours do you owe me by now, I could make a business out of this. Think it would be successful?"

"Meh it helps you as well, your mental health depend on mine," said Steph laughing at the look Rory had just given her. "and its ok 'cause I'll get the other guys to come along as well, I'm sure Finn would love to come with us to try on clothes and shoes, plus Logan has the best taste."

"Anyone that hadn't met the three of them would swear they were gay listening to that." Said Rory. "Steph don't you think you should talk to Colin about what happened, I mean its kind of a big deal don't you think."

"Rory, I don't want to talk to him about it, for years it's been me and the guys and they all think of me as their little sister nothing more, I just … I have to get over it and move on." She said hoping she was hiding how much it hurt to say this out loud, for the past few days the thought that she would have to move on from someone she has liked for so long had plagued her mind but saying it out loud made her think that it was what was really meant to happen.

Rory moved across the table and gave Steph a hug before they went to Luke's to grab some dinner.

oOo

Steph went back to her house before Friday night dinner saying that she had overstayed her welcome no matter how much Lorelai and Rory protested. Lorelai's attempts to make Steph join them at dinner failed miserably after relaying all of the terrible dinners that had been had since their Friday night arrangement began.

Rory's phone began ringing on Saturday morning, figuring it was Lorelai waking her up saying that if she was up the world would be up Rory quickly hung up the phone and went back to sleep. When the phone started ringing again she picked it up and practically yelled at the caller, "Who the hell do you think you are waking me up at…" she looked at the clock, "NINE-O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!"

"Oh I'm good thanks how are you?" when he didn't get a reply he went on, "Calm down doll, you look beautiful without the sleep." Said Finn slightly scared that she would yell again.

"Finn? What are you doing up? You know that the sun is out right?"

"Well I wouldn't be if my former friend hadn't stormed into my bedroom and dragged me out of bed to complain that a young perky blonde had been acting weird lately. It wasn't even as if she had said something in particular he just said that she was acting weird. Seriously I could kill Colin right about now. Is Steph still there?"

"No she left last night before dinner, why did you call me? Logan would have been just as fun to wake up don't you think?"

"Nah that boy is up with the sun, Mitchum would make sure of that, especially because he just got kicked out of another school, don't you think?"

"Good point, so… you done or can I go back to sleep?"

"Almost, do you wanna hang out with me later?" Finn said kind of nervously.

"Um… yeah, sure call me later with the details."

"Will do fair lady," not being able to help the smile that had formed on his face. "Sleep well, don't have too many naughty dreams about me."

"Bye Finn," Rory said monotonously. As Rory hung up the phone she couldn't help but smile before falling back to sleep. Later that afternoon Rory had forgotten all about her conversation with Finn until he called her while she was reading The Princess Bride for what must have been the hundredth time, the book itself looked like it was going to fall apart from use, but her jumping from her trance when her phone rang did the trick, "Damn it," she cursed as she picked up the phone. "Hello?" she said in what must have sounded an agitated voice as the person on the other end of the line seemed hesitant to speak.

"Um hey," Finn said casing Rory to smile, "Did I catch you at a bad time or something?"

"Oh Finn, no sorry I was just a bit shocked."

"Um okay then, I wont even try to pretend I know why, anyways I was wondering if you were free on this fine evening ma'am?"

"Well don't we sound gentlemanly," she said giggling at Finn's fake British accent.

"What can I say, it comes with the package,"

"Uhuh…right so moving on, no I'm not doing anything tonight, did you have something in mind?"

"Who said that I wanted to take you somewhere? Isn't that a bit presumptuous Rory, tut tut."

"Oh shut up."

"Subject appears to be hostile, no provocation needed," said Finn laughing at her waiting for her to take the bait, he was shocked when she didn't reply. "Uh Rore you still there?" No answer. "Okay I guess I will have to find someone else to talk to then." No answer. "Why hello Mr. Sandwich…no no there's no need for that…I am not just speaking to you because the lovely Rory won't speak to me, what kind of man do you think I am."

"Okay okay I give!" she said laughing at how absurdly he was acting.

"Excellent I will see you at seven then darling, dress casual, comfortable shoes, you know the deal." And he hung up the phone before she even had a chance to respond.

Rory checked her watch seeing that she had another three hours before Finn came, she walked into her room and began trying to find something to wear. After searching through her wardrobe and trying on countless outfits she settled on a simple blue singlet, a white cardigan and dark blue jeans. When Lorelai came home she helped adjust her hair and makeup before Finn arrived to pick Rory up.

Lorelai liked Finn, she was glad that he seemed to really like Rory, and she wouldn't holf it against him that his family came from society, he couldn't help it. When Finn arrived at seven fifteen she went to open the door. "Good man, you know the fifteen minute rule, there's ope for the male species yet huh?"

"Well I didn't wanna come off badly now did I, plus I was representing the whole male population apparently." He said holding out a cup of coffee to her.

Lorelai's eyes widened and she kissed Finn on the cheek before taking the coffee and praising him as an eternal coffee god.

Rory came out of her room to see what her mother was shouting about, when she saw the coffee in her hand she turned to Finn with a pout on her face. "Hey where's mine?"

"Love, we have all night to get you as much coffee as you want." When she didn't stop pouting he added, "And there may be a cup of coffee waiting for you in the limo."

"Your good boy," Lorelai said before going into the living room to sit on the couch. This was the first time Rory stopped to take in Finn's appearance, he looked great he had a pair of black jeans on and a green shirt that made the green in his eyes shine like she hadn't seen before. Suddenly all Rory could think about was walking up to him and kissing him, _'Stop it Rory you can't we haven't even started our date yet…man he smells good…damn it.'_

"Should we go then doll?" Finn said starting to get worried about Rory staring off into space. "Um Rory?" no response, "Rory!"

"What? Sorry I was off with the fairies," she said slightly blushing.

Finn just chuckled, "It's all good, you ready to go?"

"Uh yeah, where are we going by the way?"

"Pfft yeah like I'd tell you." He said as he walked into the living room to say goodbye to Lorelai.

oOo

"I can't believe you just said that! Early Family Guy trumps the early episodes of the Simspons" said Rory loudly, almost taking out Finn with her fork.

"But darling they were different times." Finn argued trying to dodged the fork that came his way again as he said this.

"Okay so you are really going to sit there and tell me that you would rather watch season 1 of the Simpsons, than season 1 of Family Guy? Yeah I thought so," she continued when she got no response.

Rory and Finn were sitting in the middle of the food court eating from four different plates that they had loaded with food from different stores. To anyone that looked at them they looked as if they had been together forever when in reality they had only known each other a few weeks. They had decided to go grab food before they moved to the next part of the date, after much begging from Rory on the ride to Hartford she had finally given up and pulled out the doe eyes and Finn had caved telling her that he was taking her to a concert by one of his favourite bands, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, conveniently leaving out that another surprise awaited her once the concert was over. So after a long debate on where to eat dinner they had ended up in the food court of Hartford mall.

"I can't believe you couldn't think of anywhere you wanted to eat rather than the mall. It's bad enough when Stephanie drags us on one of her shopping sprees, which by the way if you're not careful you'll probably join us one day." Said Finn smiling at how the night had begun.

"I already went shopping with Steph and Colin last week."

"Really? How long did you guys go for?"

"Um about 4 hours maybe, why?" Rory asked looking confused.

"Hmm, she must still be mad at Colin usually she keeps one of us there for a minimum 6 hours even if she has to pay to keep the store open for herself." He said chuckling at Rory's shocked face when he said this.

Nice they had finished dinner they headed over to the concert, noticing that they would be standing up for at least the next 2 hours Rory thanked herself for grabbing a pair of sneakers as she walked out the door. As the concert went on Finn kept whispering comments about the band and the music in Rory's ear causing her heart to speed um from the warmth of his breath and the way he touched her back everytime he lent in to say something.

oOo

By the time the concert was over Rory was exhausted, Finn offered to walk Rory inside insisting that it was the gentlemanly thing to do. They walked into the house adorned with the purchases of the night Rory having bought the CD and T-shirts of the band after discovering she actually liked their music. As she walked into the living room she almost screamed as she looked around and found the room set up with blankets and pillows covering the floor and couch, and every type of junk food imaginable ready for a Gilmore Girls movie night. Finn smiled seeing her face at his last surprise for the evening, silently he put his hand on her back and led her to sit down while she recovered from the shock.

"Do you like it doll?" he asked trying not to laugh when she turned to him with shock still evident on her face.

"Like it? I love it, how on earth could you have convinced mum to do this?"

"Well you just have to know what buttons to push." He said remembering the long phone call he had had with Lorelai earlier that day, it hadn't taken much to convince her to help him set up the room, but the list of junk food and the decision on the perfect movie ended up taking an hour out of their afternoons.

Finn put the first movie into the player and went to sit down next to Rory on the couch, "Aww Willy Wonka!" she said as the movie started up, grabbing the packet of marshmallows she leaned back into Finn making herself comfortable to watch the movie, after about twenty minutes of watching the movie she turned to look at Finn, "Why hasn't Mum come down and said anything yet?" thinking it odd that her mother didn't immediately demand details about her date with Finn.

Finn just smiled and said that she was spending the night at Suki's and would hear all the details in the morning. As he leaned forward he looked into her eyes, seeing only the light from the television reflected in them he challenged himself to look away, he had never believed when people had spoken of moments when the world had stopped and only one thing continued to matter but this was it, looking into her eyes he could not see or think of anything else. Finally Rory looked at Finn taking in the handsome features of his face, slowly he inched his face closer to hers until their lips were only millimetres apart. Both of their hearts were beating madly as their lips touched for a sweet kiss. Both Rory and Finn were amazed at how much feeling went into one kiss, as Finn's hands moved up Rory's waste she felt as though her skin was on fire and the hairs on her neck stood on end as the kiss deepened. As Finn's tongue swept across her lips she slowly parted them to allow him entrance. Slowly they broke apart looking at each other and slightly panting from the intensity of the kiss.

Rory slowly began to think again quickly chastising Finn for interrupting the movie and turned back to the screen, Finn merely rolled his eyes and pulled her towards him laying her head on his lap and playing with her hair while they finished the movie. Everything else about the night was forgotten after that point as both teenagers sat pondering what was to come.


	4. Poker, Twister and Meetings

Rory woke up on Sunday morning in her living room; looking around confused she suddenly felt the couch under her move Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the show or any of the characters

Rory woke up on Sunday morning in her living room; looking around confused she suddenly felt the couch under her move. She kept herself from laughing at Finn sprawled out on the couch under her with his head lying on her mothers hello kitty cushion. Slowly she tried to get up when Finn's arms went around her waist to stop her from moving.

"Where do you think your going doll?" he said, his voice still hoarse from sleep. Opening one eye he looked at her trying to remember a time he had seen someone so beautiful. He couldn't resist the urge and lent up to kiss the girl sitting in front of him. It was a short kiss but it was enough, when he pulled away he saw a small smile form on her lips and had to stop himself from kissing her again.

"Can't you smell the coffee in there just begging to be made?" Rory said getting up off the couch ignoring Finn protesting groan. "Do you want some?"

"I'll just wait for the second pot Rore." He said smiling as her face lit up and she skipped off into the kitchen. He sat there a few minutes listening to Rory bustle around the kitchen making coffee. "What are you doing tonight kitten?" he yelled into the kitchen.

Rory's head popped around the corner as she said that she didn't have any plans for the night. She had done all of her homework on Friday night, not wanting to leave it until the last minute.

"Logan's having the gang around for a games night at his tonight and apparently it's my job to make sure you are there. Steph's, orders. Pack an overnight bag and we'll go to school from there if you want." He said knowing she would eventually give in even if he had to argue the point.

Rory just sighed and turned back to her coffee, which had just finished brewing. "What time?" she asked with another defeated sigh, she also knew that Finn would drag her there kicking and screaming if he had to.

"Anytime before seven is fine love. We can head out when you want, but the new maid has this thing about dirty feet so make sure you wear your dirtiest sneakers. Trust me the glares you get are so worth it." He said laughing at his memory of the maid's appalled face when the boys had come back from camping a few weeks previously.

"Do you want to go and grab some breakfast at Luke's?" Rory asked having finished her coffee and heading into her bathroom to get ready for the day.

"Yeah I'll go get my clothes and change before we go though," he called to her.

"Bathroom's upstairs."

oOo

Twenty minutes later after much rushing and complaining from Finn, they headed out for breakfast, both laughing and joking the whole way there neither noticing the looks that they were getting from the town members. After they had eaten breakfast the two teens sat there talking about everything and anything.

"How can you say that Tennyson is better than Poe, its like comparing apples and oranges." Said Rory shocked to discover that Finn not only knew both writers but also could quote many of their poems.

"They're both fruit darling. Which you don't like by the way."

"That's not the point I just don't like the taste of it, it tastes so healthy… yuk." Said Rory making a face and smiling at Finn.

"Oh by the way, mummy dearest told me what school I'll be going to." He said remembering the conversation with his mother yesterday and refraining from rolling his eyes.

"And what's the verdict?" she asked hoping that it wasn't too far away she had gotten used to having Finn, Colin and Logan around.

"I think they settled on Suffield Academy." He said, smiling as the realisation hit her face.

"But that's not far from Chilton," she said sounding more excited than she had expected. "Will you be boarding there?"

"Yes doll, you wouldn't understand because you love your mum, but Colin, Logan and I prefer to be at boarding school rather than home."

Rory just nodded her head understanding, remembering all of the times her mother had told her how she had begged grandma to let her go to boarding school, and she had stubbornly refused.

Rory and Finn decided to head back towards the house. Sitting on the porch swing, the two of them sat there in a comfortable silence until Finn spoke up.

"Uh Rory?" he said sounding a bit nervous and capturing Rory's attention.

"Yeah?" she said looking up at him and not being able to look away from his eyes, which shone in the sun.

"I had a really great time last night and, well I know we've only known each other for like 3 weeks but I was wondering if maybe …" he said, mumbling the last part so she couldn't make any of it out.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that."

Finn sighed taking a deep breath trying to prepare himself. "I was wondering if maybe you would consider being my girlfriend?"

Rory looked at him and couldn't help but smile at how nervous Finn seemed to be. She composed her face as best she could and started, "Well," she said emphasising the word, and seeing a fleeting look of panic cross Finn's face. "I'd love to Finn." And at this she reached up and kissed him hard on the lips. It took Finn a moment to respond, still going over the last few seconds in his head until he realised she had just said yes. At this he began to kiss her back passionately not wanting to think about anything but Rory at this moment.

Rory deepened the kiss and allowed herself to play with Finn's hair and noticing him falter when she began to take charge. With a slight smirk Finn placed his hand on Rory's thigh and began to move it back and forth slowly moving to this inside of her thigh hearing her groan as he did. He leant back slightly to watch her as his hand trailed from her leg up to her neck touching as much of her as possible before pulling her close to him and closing his lips over hers again. Rory had never felt like this before, wanting to me so close to someone was such a new feeling for her every touch from Finn made her feel safe and left her wanting more. Just as Rory got completely lost in the kiss, Finn turned her slightly more towards her and placed his lips on her neck listening to her ragged breaths as he started nipping up and down the side of her neck. Never had Finn taken so much time with a girl, for him, Colin and Logan making out was second-nature but here he was planning out his every move, feeling suddenly slightly nervous he moved away from her neck and quickly kissed her lips before smiling and standing to help Rory up.

"Come on love we better start heading out aye, Logan and by Logan I mean Stephanie will not be happy if we're late." He said winking at Rory before taking her hand and leading her into the house.

He sat on Rory's bed while she bustled around the room getting all the things she needed to stay at Logan's that night, not even noticing the strange looks she got from Finn when she started talking to her socks. When she walked over to her desk for what seemed like the 20th time in the 10 minutes Finn had been sitting there he grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his lap and held Rory close to his chest, not loosening his grip until she stopped struggling against him. When she turned around to face him Rory saw Finn's usually bright green eyes darken with lust as he leant in towards her. She twisted around in his arms and pressed into him as their lips came together. As the kiss deepened they leant back onto the bed and her hands came up to stroke his chest as his tongue swept her lip begging for entrance. Rory smiled into the kiss as she opened her lips slightly. Finn took the opportunity to explore her mouth, he never felt like this before, the need running through him was excruciating. No matter how close he pulled Rory into himself it wasn't close enough. Finn's hand ran down Rory's back, past her butt and down her thigh slowly stroking up and down until he took his leg into his hand and slowly pulled her around until she was on top of him.

Rory couldn't believe what she was feeling; as he pulled her onto him she suddenly felt self-conscious and started to pull away. Feeling this Finn pulled him in closer to himself and ran his hand up and down her back soothingly until he felt her relax into him. Leaving her lips Finn left a trail of kisses along her collarbone and up the base of her neck eliciting a moan from Rory. She had never felt like this before, her whole body was on fire, her senses were heightened, every sound, every smell, every touch made her want Finn more. For a while, the two tested the boundaries of their new relationship, trying to memorise what the other liked and trying desperately to become closer to each other. When they finally broke apart they realised the time had flown by and they had already missed about 5 calls from Stephanie to inform them of how late they were.

Rory stood up blushing furiously and quickly finished packing before they headed out of the house into the car waiting to take them to Logan's house.

oOo

On the ride to Logan's, Rory looked anywhere but at Finn, making light conversation on landmarks they passed on the way, but apart from that the two teenagers sat in an uncomfortable silence. Not being one to dance around the issue Finn broke the silence startling Rory out of her trance.

"Love is something the matter?" he said with a worried and slightly nervous look in his eyes as he tried to meet her gaze. He placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head so that she would look at him. When her eyes met him he laughed nervously, "There's those beautiful eyes," while touching his hand lightly to her cheek.

She smiled slightly putting her head down and resting it on his shoulder. He instinctively put his arm around her and pulled her into him. "I'm sorry about before Rory I guess we got a bit carried away huh?" he said.

When she heard him say sorry she lifted her head looking at him s if he were insane. "Finn, you have nothing to be sorry about, I was just … well I was kind of taking it all in I mean it feels like everything has just happened so fast and my head is yelling at me to bolt, because lets face it, that Gilmore style but I just … can't an even bigger part of me wants to stay here with you." She continued rambling, not noticing the huge smile plastered on Finn's face when she said she wanted to stay with him.

"So…" he said interrupting her, "You're saying that my exotic accent and charm is keeping you around aye." He said wiggling his eyebrows trying to lighten the mood.

"Uhuh, the accent is all I keep you for though, the charm only works on Stephanie," she said laughing at the look of mock indignation on his face. She was caught off guard when Finn caught her waist and started tickling her.

"Take that back doll, say it, say that you can't resist my sexy Australian charm." He said.

"Okay, okay I can't resist your Australian charm," she gasped out between laughs.

"Darling you forgot the sexy part." He said with a pout letting go of her so she could catch her breath.

She smiled at the pout on his face and leaned up to kiss him, just before their lips met she whispered, "I Can't resist your _sexy_ Australian charm." Before closing the gap between them.

He smirked when she started to pull away. "I knew I would get you to agree darling. It was only a matter of time. Rory shrugged and turned to lay her head back on his shoulder again. The rest of the trip was comfortable, the two slipping back into their usual banter.

oOo

When they arrived at Logan's Rory couldn't help but gawk at the house, if she thought the Gilmore's house was big this house was huge. She walked through the doors and saw Logan, Colin and Steph seated around a poker table arguing about something.

"Logan if I hadn't come along that night you would have lost half your trust fund to Robert." Steph said with a defiant look on her face, "Admit it you have nothing without me." When she looked around and saw Rory her eyes lit up and she got out of her seat to go hug her, before reprimanding her for being late and dragging her back over to the table. "Have you played before Rore?" she asked watching Rory survey the table.

Rory nodded, "Yeah, Mum said it's a skill no woman should be without" she said laughing at her mothers attempts to teach her how to play poker and the faces Luke had made until he finally gave in and taught them both how to play. Steph won the hand and Logan dealt them all in. Rory sat straight across from Finn and Logan watching their subtle give-aways and slowly staring to pick up on their bluffs. Colin was seated next to Steph and was a lot easier to read than the other 4, not being able to hide the smug look he got when dealt a good hand. By the end of the first hour Rory and Steph had won most of the hands.

Steph giggled next to Rory, "Too bad it's not strip poker, we'd both be happy ladies" she said so only Rory could hear, eyeing the boys and turning to her with a devilish grin.

Rory's eyes went wide, "Steph…" she barely got that out before Steph declared to the table.

"I think its time for a round of strip poker boys." She said with an innocent smile on her face.

The three guys just turned to each other and shrugged, "Sure." "Why not?" "You read my mind Steph darling," they all said at the same time. If they were going to lose they'd have fun doing it.

By 10:30 they called the game over Logan was in his boxers and one sock Colin had his trousers on and Finn had his undershirt and boxers on, the girls looked like they had only been watching rather than playing, Rory only ending up having to take off her shoes, belt and sweater and Steph still wearing everything but her shoes and jacket. The pizza delivery boy had gotten quite a start when Logan went to the door dressed in his unbuttoned shirt, boxers and socks to pay for the pizza, looking inside and seeing 2 other guys dressed in a similar fashion, and the girls sitting at the table fully clothed.

After the guys had changed into the sweats and shirts for bed, the girls changed into their pyjamas, Steph muttering something about having to take Rory shopping for some new pyjamas. They walked downstairs to see that the guys had set up the twister mat and Logan and Colin had already started to play. Steph and Rory laughed at the sight of each boy trying to knock the other one over. The other three joined in on the game, being placed in awkward positions as it was, it wasn't until Colin and Steph came very close to each other that Steph accidentally slipped and ended the game. As they sat on the floor rolling around and laughing Rory suddenly had a thought.

"Um Logan where are your parents? Or anyone for that matter?" she asked wondering why she hadn't realised they weren't there before.

"Um Greece maybe?" said Logan looking around the walls.

"You don't know?"

"Who can keep up, it's somewhere new every week Rore." He chuckled at the look on her face it looked like sympathy. "Really Rory it doesn't bother us, our parents send us to boarding school it's not like I'd rather be here with them." He shuddered at the thought.

Rory laughed knowing her mother would have said the same thing if her parents ever let her go to boarding school. They climbed into bed on the mattresses that were set up in Logan's entertainment room and tried to decide on a movie Rory awed at the room they were sitting in, her mother would have thought it perfect for their movie nights, a huge projector screen with ginormous leather couches set on the back wall with games and a pool table taking up space from there to the screen. After arguing the girls won insisting that _she's the man_ would be a good way for the guys to pick up hints. The boys admitted defeat only when Steph got up to put it in the player, stole the remote and laid down knowing none of them would bother to stand up and change it. Instead the boys sat and mocked the movie mercilessly and the girls paid more attention to their animated conversation than on the movie. As the night wore on the girls were the first to fall asleep knowing they had to get up and at least be able to drag themselves around school, the boys on the other hand had until Tuesday before they started at Suffield.

oOo

The next few months passed without any major dramas, Rory saw Finn on weekends when he was let out of boarding school, these were lessened by the amount of trouble the boys ended up getting into and Christmas vacation was fast approaching.

Friday night dinner was going ahead as usual tonight and when Rory walked into the Gilmore's living room she was shocked to see three people chatting with her grandparents, two of whom she was sure she had never seen in her life. When Lorelai walked in and saw them her eyes bulged at the sight of Christopher and his parents sitting there. She lent over and whispered to Rory, "Okay, major teenage flashback here."

"Who are they?" said Rory hoping that her suspicions wouldn't be confirmed by Lorelai's answer.

"Francine and Straub. Don't worry they'll probably just ignore us most of the night." She said trying to make light of the situation.

"Honestly Lorelai, are you going to stand in the doorway all evening or are you going to come in and greet our guests?" Said Emily coming over to drag the girls into the living room. Muttering something under her breath that neither of them could catch.

"Lorelai, Rory, my how marvellous you look ladies I haven't seen you in…what fifteen years?" she said turning to her husband.

The man stood and nodded to his wife and turned to the girls before speaking. "It's nice to see you again Lorelai," he said shaking her hand and turning to greet Rory. "Hello Rory, I'm your grandfather Straub Hayden, and your Grandmother, Francine." He said gesturing towards his wife.

The dinner that followed was pleasant enough, after the initial greetings Christopher stubbornly averted his gaze away from Lorelai's piercing eyes. When they all sat in the living room again after dinner, Richard began to speak and Christopher mouth an, 'I'm sorry' to Lorelai just as Richard made an announcement.

"… and to commend Lorelai for her good job and finishing College Emily and I have bought her another Inn to add to the Dragonfly." He said with something that very much resembled pride in his eyes. Lorelai looked at him with her mouth and eyes wide open, not quite believing what her ears were telling her.

To say that she was speechless was an understatement, Lorelai could hardly put together a coherent thought let alone a sentence. _An Inn? My parents bought me an Inn?_

"I'm sorry Lorelai, we knew you wouldn't accept the money from us so we figured it might be easier this way. If it's not your taste of course we'd be happy to help you find another location," he said with a look of concern crossing his face, hoping she wouldn't make a scene.

Lorelai looked at him and the folder he handed to her. His face was etched with sincerity and she smiled and stood to hug him and her mother before accepting the folder. The pictures of the property were beautiful, the landscape was huge and the existing building looked like a Victorian manor, with three main sections visible from the front and a back Villa. It was better than she could have imagined, she leafed through the papers to find the deed and gasped when she saw that the property was in France, on the outskirts of Paris.

"Rory we also have an announcement concerning you." Said Francine in a kind voice. "As you know Straub has a rather large legal corporation and we have decided that you will be the heir to the corporation." She said ignoring Lorelai's shocked look. "Not that you have to go into law darling," she said knowing of Rory's journalism aspirations. "There are people that can run the company, but we would prefer to have family having the last say, you know."

From the corner of her eye she could see Lorelai scowling at Christopher, the smoke would be coming out of her ears anytime now. The next half hour they discussed the procedures they needed to undergo, while Rory and Lorelai read through some legal papers they had to sign. The evening ended with Francine promising to call the next day to arrange a shopping day with the girls.

The trip back to Stars Hollow was silent, both Rory and Lorelai thinking through the events of the night, after the initial conversation Lorelai had accepted Rory as the Hayden heir and signed the papers without argument. When Rory returned to her room for the night saying a quick goodnight to her mother she found a text she had received from Finn a few hours earlier.

_Told you it was only a matter of time before they chucked us out._

Your Sexy Aussie x

She smiled and climbed into bed, falling asleep almost immediately, it had been a long day.

* * *

_I bet you thought the guys would go to Chilton aye? I thought it would be fun to have Rory on good terms with the Hayden's it always made me sad when she got home from that dinner. Thanks for the reviews guys, sorry its taken so long to post again I have just had my half-yearlies at school._

_Kat -xxx-_

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	5. The Bridge

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the show or any of the characters.

* * *

Saturday Rory and Lorelai just rewound and relaxed, there was no arguing no mentioning of Inn and Money just them ordering food, mocking movies and talking about any random thing that seemed to jump to mind.

By twelve o'clock Finn was getting impatient wanting Rory to write back, he missed her. He missed seeing her as often as he did before he entered Suffield Academy. The fact that they had gotten kicked out of yet another boarding school was great, and so close to the end of term he wouldn't have to go back to school until the new year. The prospect of seeing Rory for a lot of that time was burned into his brain. This girl had affected him. Most girls didn't have the impact that Rory did, they were forgettable, their names were ones you looked up when you were wallowing in your own self-pity, but Rory was different. It was apparent to everyone other than Finn and Rory that he had fallen for her, but he was getting closer to realising as the day went by.

"Finn would you stop trying to carve a trench into my floor?" said Colin as they were sitting in his bedroom; the room was pretty much what you expected from Colin. The furniture was meticulously laid out with a teak bed-frame and matching bedside drawers and shelves, his desk lined an entire wall with about a third of the shelves above it containing books and the rest was filled with rows and rows of CDs. "What are you doing here anyway, we're off school and it's only twelve in the afternoon."

"I just needed to get out of the house mate." Finn simply stated, not wanting to admit he was waiting for Rory to reply to his message last night.

"Whatever," said Colin knowing there was more to it than that. "I'm calling Steph, wanna find out what the others are doing?" he said trying to get Finn to admit he was waiting for Rory.

However Finn got a malevolent glint in his eye and went to jump on Colin bed to sit across from them so that they could talk. "Stephanie aye? Man I feel like a pansy," he said the second part offhandedly making Colin laugh. Before he could attempt to change the subject Finn interjected. "So what are your intentions, or for want of a better word _feelings_ towards the lovely Stephanie?" Finn made a face as he said 'feelings' knowing all too well that Colin would do anything to get out of such an uncomfortable conversation.

"Finn for the last time I am not in love with Stephanie!" Colin shouted at his friend, realising his mistake and smiling sheepishly before Finn could even process what he had just said.

"Your in love with her?" he said shocked that Colin was even aware of his feelings for Steph, not that he would admit it.

"I just said I wasn't didn't I?"

"Cut the crap Colin, denial doesn't work for you." Said Finn getting irritated by Colin's evasiveness. "You love her?" he demanded again, more curious this time. _'Why hasn't Colin ever told me before?'_

"Well you know, sometimes I think I do. Who am I kidding though?" he admitted in defeat and walked over to his desk before blasting anything that would drown any comment Finn would make out. The look on his mates face made Finn decide that he had to do something, anything to make Colin realise that Stephanie felt the same.

Finn walked up to the speakers and turned down the music facing Colin. "Let's go mate, no point hanging around in your own gated section of hell huh? By the way I saw wife number six when I came in today, man your father has excellent taste in women, what is she 5 years older than us?"

Colin snorted, "Actually its 8 soon there won't be an age difference to worry about I can have a sister and a mother all in one. Joy." He said sarcasm hanging on his every word.

"Bags Driving!" Said Finn happily, grabbing Colin's keys and racing out the door. Colin just groaned following behind Finn.

oOo

When they got into the car Colin pulled out his phone and started to call Rory, Logan and Steph. Rory had told them to come around and help them put up the Christmas tree, she sounded off but Colin didn't question it, when she heard Finn in the background she cursed under her breath and quickly grabbed her mobile typing a message to Finn while still talking to Colin this made Colin laugh, only Rory would bother to do something like that when he could have easily just passed to phone to Finn himself. Logan and Steph were easy, both of them agreed to meet at Rory's house as soon as they could, by this point all of them had clothes at Rory's house, having slept there so often that they no longer needed to bring any overnight gear.

When Colin hung up on Steph, Finn was next to him making kissing noises. When Colin rolled his eyes Finn just winked at him making Colin scowl at the oversized kid sitting next to him, driving his car. "I must be insane." He muttered to himself as Finn raised an eyebrow hearing his declaration.

To say Finn was excited to see Rory was an understatement. It had been almost three weeks since they had seen each other for more than a passing visit, he missed her, he physically and mentally missed her when they weren't together. He found himself waiting for replies to texts that he sent her, no matter how random it was or how light their conversation was she always knew what to say and he had begun to learn what to expect. He'd never craved someone's company so much before. She was the reason they had lasted so long at Suffield, he wanted to stay close enough to her that he could be with her within the hour if they needed to be. As he sat and pondered this he wondered if Colin or Logan had ever felt this way before, that need and desire just to see your girl. His mind wandered back to the conversation in Colin's room, _'how does Colin know that he loves her? At least Rory and I have admitted our feelings for each other.'_ Comprehension suddenly dawned on his face and he swerved the car making Colin scream in the highest voice he had ever heard come from his friend. Apologizing quickly he turned back to the road. Thank heavens the road was quiet at this time of the afternoon. _'Do I love Rory? I mean she's amazing but love? Am I even ready for that? How do you know? Oh my god how do you know if your ready to be in love?'_ nothing else registered in his mind the rest of the way to Rory's as he sat lost in thought.

When they arrived he barely noticed walking up to the house and knocking on the door. It wasn't until Rory opened the door still dressed in her 'Dora the Explorer' pyjama pants and white tank top that he made up his mind _'of course I'm bloody in love with her. What am I an idiot or something?'_

oOo

Rory opened the door happy to see someone that would pull her out of the state she was in. Shock. The impact of the dinner last night had not softened over night, sure she had accepted some of the new realities of her life but the shock was still there. Her mother had taken the morning off and they had bummed around the house, watching movie after movie until they were pretty sure the lounge had moulded to their shape. When she opened the door she saw Colin and Finn standing on the porch, Colin looking panicked, but when she saw Finn holding the keys to the BMW she figured out why. "Colin you should know better than to let Finn drive." She said smiling and going to hug him. Finn looked like he hadn't heard a word she had said he looked at her with an intense gaze that made her kind of nervous.

She leaned up and kissed him before he blinked out of his trance and responded. "Hello darling, it's always nice to be greeted in such a friendly way." He said, winking and stepping past her into the 'Crap Shack'. She just glared at him before he walked back outside and kissed her hard on the lips before picking her up and walking her inside. After Finn deposited Rory n the lounge he look around the room. "What did the sugar convention come through here or something? I know you and Lorelai can eat a lot but even for the two of you this is a lot." He said as he picked up about twenty candy packets all of them empty.

"You know we had to test the metabolism," Rory joked reminding herself that she would need to talk to Finn later. "How will we ever keep it in shape if we don't exercise it." She smiled innocently and batted her eyelashes. Seeing Finn give in, she pulled him onto the lounge and patted the seat on her other side for Colin to sit down. She quickly got up and put grabbed the remote playing the Blackadder dvd they hadn't finished that morning.

Steph and Logan arrived half an hour after Finn and Colin, walking into the house after hearing Rory yell at them to "stop being lazy and open the damn door yourself." Steph couldn't help but giggle at the sight in front of her, Rory was upside down on the couch sitting next to Finn who had his legs spread across the lounge behind Rory and Colin sitting on the floor flicking popcorn at Finn every time his feet went near Colin's head. "Hey guys," said Rory trying to get up, resulting in her doing a very ungraceful back flip off the lounge. The whole room howled with laughter at her face when she got up from the floor with her hair and clothes dishevelled.

Rory pouted and left the room, followed closely by Finn who told the others to wait there a sec. As Rory made her way around the kitchen, Finn stood amused at how natural the action was to her even though both Lorelai and Rory stubbornly argued that Gilmore women do not cook. After she had put more popcorn into the microwave he grabbed her round the waist and pulled Rory into him before kissing her sweetly. "Hello love," Finn smiled at the new meaning behind the name.

"You know I could have been holding something sharp." Rory tried to say this with a straight face, not succeeding when Finn raised his eyebrows at her. "Ok fine I wouldn't be but that's not the point, you scared me." She said in a whisper as Finn's lips came down on her neck and gently kissed their way up to her mouth trying to express how much he had missed her. When the telephone rang neither of the two people in the kitchen noticed it.

Logan sighing got up off the floor where he was playing a game of bloods (**A/N: game where you flick a coin at the other person's knuckles until they bleed**) with Colin on the coffee table. "Hello Gilmore residence."

"…"

"No this is Logan Huntzberger."

"…"

"Uh yes the very same, were you looking for Lorelai Mrs Hayden?"

"…"

"Sorry Francine,"

"…"

"Rory?" He said with a curious look at Rory and Finn, 'Why was one of the Hayden's calling Rory?' "Just let me get her for you." He said looking at Rory who had looked up after hearing him mention Francine.

Logan handed her the phone and after a quick thankyou she took the phone and made her way to her room. She didn't bother to close it knowing that she would have to explain the situation to them at one point, she just didn't know how, how do you tell someone that you have more money then they do?

"Hello?"

"Lorelai darling how are you?" came a bright voice from the other side of the telephone, for some reason Francine sounded warmer towards her than she had done last night.

"You can call me Rory you know Grandma." She said hoping that Francine would pick up the hint.

"Yes, sorry Rory." She said in a friendly tone, "You sound shocked to hear from me dear. Didn't I mention last night that I would call?"

"Yes you did sorry, just a lot of information to process form last night you understand." Rory explained knowing that Francine couldn't possibly understand the shock she had given Rory last night.

"Yes of course dear that's fine, anyway I was wondering if you are free tomorrow to go shopping?"

"Tomorrow?" Rory wasn't expecting it to be quite so soon, but they may as well get it over and done with after all. "Uh sure, it would have to be in the afternoon though if it's alright with you?" she said kind of hoping that she couldn't make it then.

"Nonsense I'm available then, that works out marvellously actually I can have brunch with the McCraes before I come down to Stars Hollow to pick you up."

"The McCraes? Colin's parents?" she asked.

"Yes how do you know Colin? Oh Emily probably forced him onto you at some party didn't she." More stating than asking a question.

"Actually Colin's one of my friends, my friend Steph introduced us."

"Oh fabulous, well the McCraes have a smaller law firm that has been working on a deal with Straub to be associated with our corporation dear our corporation dear. They're very big on the west coast and I think Straub and Andrew are discussing a partnership, but we can talk about this tomorrow. I will pick you up at about 1:30 if that's convenient?"

"Sounds great Grandma. See you then."

"Goodbye Rory dear." Francine said hanging up the phone.

Rory just groaned and laid back on the bed, she didn't even notice that Finn had come into the room to sit with her while she calmed down. When Finn and Logan heard her say Grandma when she spoke to Francine they had been alarmed, how could they not know this? Logan had left Finn in the room with Rory knowing that they would need to talk about it first. When Rory finally noticed Finn sitting at her desk she smiled, he had grabbed her copy of The Alchemist and was deeply immersed in the book when she went up and kissed the back of his neck.

"Grandma giving you a hard time love?" he said jokingly trying to urge her to talk about it.

"Yeah she wants to go shopping tomorrow, fun huh?" she said into his neck, her hot breath stopping Finn from thinking straight.

"Maybe it won't be so bad?" when she gave him a sceptical look he continued. "So the Haydens huh?"

Rory gave him a sheepish look and nodded, "I guess you had to find out one way or another." She recounted the entire evening they had had last night. Finn nodding as she talked and taking her hand in his, the gesture seemed small to her, but it seemed to help, Finn on the other hand was elated, since his drive this afternoon, everything seemed new when he was around Rory. _'This girl is going to drive me crazy one of these days.'_

The rest of the day the 5 of them sat in the kitchen and strung popcorn strings laughing and joking, not talking about anything in particular but trying to give Rory some space so that she could deal with the Haydens, Rory had gone out to explain to all of them the situation and Steph was thrilled that she finally had another girl to go shopping with, even more so than they already did. Colin was thrilled that he wouldn't end up having to run the company with some other society snob and Logan just walked up and gave her a hug knowing how hard it probably was for her to accept the new life that had been handed to her. It was 12:00 by the time everyone crashed out in the living room, Lorelai had called and said that she was going to Suki's for the night and Rory was left wide awake with everyone else dead to the world. She went to put her sweats on and found Finn standing groggily in her doorway.

"What's wrong love why are you up?"

"No reason, I was just going to go for a walk want to come?"

Finn rolled his eyes and took her hand making his way to the door with her at his side.

"You might want shoes Finn?" she said quietly, he looked down and slid on his thongs before walking out of the house.

She led him to the bridge and they sat down, she watching the stars reflected in the water and looked up when Finn spoke. "I'm sorry that you have had to deal with everything to do with the Haydens and Gilmores." He said, when she looked up and saw sincerity on his face she just laughed.

"Finn it's not like I think it's a bad thing, I might like law. I might like being able to keep up with Stephanie when we have all day shopping trips. Its just that I don't know how Mum is going to deal with it, she ran away from that world and as much as she won't admit it, she doesn't want me going back into it."

"Maybe she won't be upset." He said knowing all too well that Lorelai would hate it.

"Even you know that's bull." She said smiling. "But I wanna do it anyway, I've never been close to Dad and maybe, this is the way to do it."

"Won't he be miffed that you took the company from him though?" Finn wondered out loud, his eyes widened until Rory started laughing again.

"Miffed? No he won't be miffed, he set up a computer company after he finished Princeton he's all set."

"A computer company?"

"Yeah CHT its doing really well actually no one new he had such a flair for business."

"Your Dad owns CHT?" Finn asked incredulously. It was one of the biggest technology firms in America, pretty much very major company used their systems and databases.

"Uhuh Christopher Hayden Technologies, Mum and I laughed and called him vein for naming the company after himself but it seemed to work well."

They sat there talking about their families, learning more about the people they grew up with, Finn's parents and his little sister and Rory talking about her relationship with their dad. Until Finn remembered his conversation with Colin that morning.

"Oh my god, guess who got a confession out of Colin this morning." He said happily turning to face Rory quickly, "Man twice in one day I really do feel like a pansy. Anyway apparently our little boy has been harbouring some not so savoury feelings for Stephanie."

"Really?" said Rory shocked that Colin would admit such a thing and to Finn of all people, he should know Finn couldn't keep a secret.

"Well not in so many words but he likes her Rore." He said knowing she would help him plan, _'maybe we can get Logan in on this too.'_ Finn took a deep now was the time, he needed to tell her how he felt about her right? He leant down and kissed her, only meaning for the kiss to be short, he felt Rory's hand move to his waist and he pulled her close to him, they laid down on the bridge and his hands went to her hair playing with her curls and keeping her within his reach, his other hand ran down her left side and made her shiver when he passed her hips.

Rory groaned when he rolled slightly onto her she could feel his whole body moving with hers and wrapped her arms around his neck and deepening the kiss, she was shocked when he rolled completely onto her, she started to pull back when she heard him groan from the motion, she smiled quickly at him and pressed her lips to the hollow of his neck pulling away slightly and breathing a quiet sorry onto his skin, she didn't rush as he pulled her closer and she started to suck and kiss his neck and then she did it, she whispered the four words he was afraid to say into his ear. "I love you Finn."

He let her go and pulled her up with a pout on his face, "You beat me to it! I could've won if I didn't let you sweep me up damn those eyes, stupid kiss. I almost run myself off the road from realising, but I can't even bloody well say it and you beat me." He was ranting to himself and looked over to see amusement in Rory's eyes.

"You almost drove off the road?" she demanded, watching him closely to see how he was taking it.

"I'm here aren't I?"

"So your rant…"

"Yeah?" amused that she hadn't run away yet and yet still scared to admit it to her. 'Just say it you bloody coward.' When she didn't say anything he took her hand and brought it to his lips before looking at her.

"Rory I love you." He said, relief and terror running through him at the same time.

"I love you too Finn," she said smiling and kissing him quickly.

"See that's how it was meant to go." He said jokingly.

"Did you really think it was a bad kiss I thought it was pretty good myself she said with her Bambi eyes and he groaned at her before kissing her, "It was marvellous darling but please take that look off your face before I do unspeakable things to you, and no offence but I don't think that this bridge can take it he said with a wink. Rory blushed hearing this and got up pulling Finn with her, the walk home was filled with plans for Colin and Steph, and a rather long argument about what their code names would be.

Both of them revelling in the moment that they had shared before trying to remember everything about the night.

* * *

Hey guys

Hope you like this chapter, it was a bit slow I thought, but it was necessary.

Kat -xx-


	6. A New Wardrobe

_I'm so so so so so sorry for taking so long to update it won't happen again, I got completely sidetracked reading twilight and twilight fics and school (Not long to go yay). And anyone who has read twilight would know what I mean._

_Thank you to all my reviewers:_

_Curley-Q, TVHollywoodDiva, the voice of, Gilmore's Rose, just hidden, peeq, romance in the rain, flowerson, frackandbonechick, coffeeheart, mizskitles220, idon'tknowyet and SnailWar. You guys rock._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of the characters._

* * *

Rory woke the next morning to Finn kicking around in his sleep muttering something incoherent under his breath. She turned to the clock 6:48, "urgh" she groaned, "Too early." She slowly extricated herself from Finn's arms and moved into the kitchen. Today was going to be a long day she thought to herself sitting down and staring at the oven. Doing the unimaginable Rory moved over to the neat stack of cookbooks that were kept over the oven, who knew why they had them in the first place but they were there in the kitchen that was also never touched by the two women who lived in the house. Searching through the cookbook she found a recipe for pancakes, and one for chocolate chip cookies. To Rory's surprise and relief she didn't have to visit Doose's before she started. Bless Suki, for insisting to cook them a snack whenever she came over.

It was relatively straight forward making the cookies, with them in the oven she began mixing the pancake mix when she heard a scream behind her and almost dropped the bowl.

"Rory? What are you doing?" Lorelai said with a shocked expression prominent on her face.

"I'm cooking breakfast." Said Rory as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.

"Haha, yeah yeah nice Betty Crocker impersonation, but seriously why are you … _cooking_." Lorelai said the word as if it was a disgusting piece of profanity coming out of her mouth. "You know there is this wonderful little place about a 5 minutes walk from here where a wonderful man in a hideous plaid shirt that will make you anything you want."

"Mum it's nothing I just needed to get my mind off a few things."

"What things, your 16 you should be thing free for another year at least."

"Grandma rang last night."

"To declare war in the Gilmore household. World War II had nothing on what she has coming." She looked at the coffee pot and wheeled around to face Rory, "It's empty, why is it empty?"

When Rory looked to see what she was talking about she ducked her head. "Because I didn't make any this morning." She mumbled going back to what she was doing.

"I'm sorry I thought that you said you didn't make any, but if that was the case you would be an impostor posing as my one and only daughter."

"Mum… Grandma."

"Oh yeah, so _did_ she call to declare war?"

"No mum," Rory said rolling her eyes at her mother's antics. "Francine rang last night."

"Francine well it's close enough to war I suppose, although we shouldn't be surprised she did say she would call." Said Lorelai remembering the previous night, however her love for her daughter stopped her from saying the thing that was really going through her head at that moment, she really did want Rory to have a good relationship with her paternal grandparents, however the thought of her becoming their heiress just made her think that Rory would get too close. "When's the big shopping trip?"

"At one." Said Rory with a bitter edge to her voice, why didn't she give herself more time to prepare herself.

"Today?"

"Yeah today."

"You know that's in like five hours right?"

"Thankyou captain obvious." Said Rory not wanting to remember how shorter time she had before they started their 'shopping expedition' as Francine had so eloquently put it on Friday night.

"Ooo superhero names, but mines boring. Why can't I be something fun like the sexy falcon. Ha I like it very predatoresq. And provocative yay double points."

"Mum, ooo sorry still being serious got it. Well babe I hate to be the one to say it, but maybe its better if you just go along with the whole thing, I mean you are going to be their heiress."

"Fine but you have to help me find something to wear." She said in a huff starting to cook the pancakes.

oOo

By the time everyone had woken up breakfast was ready on the table, it wasn't until halfway through breakfast that anyone made any comment on where the food came from. To say that everyone sitting at the table was shocked by Rory's cooking skills was an understatement.

"Luke has outdone himself yet again." Said Steph getting a second helping of pancakes and making her way back to the small round table.

Lorelai snorted into her fifth cup of, coffee for the morning.

"Ew gross mum."

"Well… do you guys wanna know who really cooked the pancakes." She said raising her eyebrows to the waiting teens. "I'll give you a clue, she bears a remarkable resemblance to me and her name rhymes with story." Barely able to contain her laughter at this point when she looked at her daughters red face Lorelai got up from the table and went upstairs to get ready for work.

"Rore you can cook?" said Logan looking at her with an amazed look on his face.

"Hey if journalism doesn't work out you know what you could fall back on, you could be a female Ainsley Harriot." Said Finn with a teasing tone to his voice

"No Jamie Oliver." Offered Colin.

"No no the two fat ladies then she can always have Lorelai by her side." Said Steph with an excited look in her eye.

"Yeah my mother with a knife I could imagine the carnage now, and didn't one of them die." Rory said hoping desperately to get off the subject of her cooking.

After breakfast Rory started to get ready for her shopping date with her Grandmother, after modelling several outfits for her friends she finally found something that was Hayden appropriate, everyone was going to head back to Hartford just before her grandmother was due to arrive and would see each other that night when she got home.

oOo

When one o'clock came Rory wasn't surprised to hear a knock at the door, as she looked out the window she gasped seeing a limo parked in the drive of her house.

"Grandma." She said as she swung the door open to greet Francine.

"Hello dear, you look lovely today. Are you ready to leave or do you need a few minutes?"

"Nope, ready as I'll ever be." Rory said with a smile walking out onto the porch and locking the door behind her. "Where are we going anyway."

"Just to the mall today dear, don't want to overwhelm you the first time now do we," she said with a light laugh to her voice that Rory hadn't heard in Francine's voice before.

"Before we leave I would like to introduce you to Noah." Said Francine looking intently at Rory urging her to greet the man before her, "He will be your diver from now on."

"My what?" Rory asked her eyes bulging at the thought of having a personal chauffer.

""Your driver dear," said Francine containing her laughter at her granddaughter's reaction. "You don't have to use the car all the time, but its there and on call if you ever need it, or want it."

They sidled into the car and made their way to the mall, mostly discussing their upcoming shopping ventures before they arrived. When they pulled up to the mall Francine immediately led Rory to the first clothing store she saw, going towards the rack and pulling off pants, shirts, tops, sweaters, skirts, trousers, jackets and dresses until each of their shopping assistance arms were laden with clothes. Francine then requested a private dressing room, where Rory proceeded to try on each article of clothing they had picked up, listening and arguing with some of Francine's comments. The arguments between the two ladies were not on the style of clothes picked out by Rory's Grandmother, she actually had quite good taste, the arguments came about upon Rory seeing the price that came with the clothes. When Rory voiced her concerns on each piece of clothing Francine stubbornly crossed her arms and insisted that the price was nothing to worry about.

After what seemed like hours they finally left the first store, Rory had stood well away as Francine purchased the clothing so as not to hear how much was spent in such a short time. She looked at her watch 2:30 how had only an hour and a half passed it seemed like so much more. it wasn't that she was having a bad time with Francine, the shopping was just a bit extravagant for her. Francine joined her and smiled before leading her onto a shoe store that they walked past.

Francine smiled at her Granddaughter, she had been so looking forward to spending time with her since the phone call last night. She must have checked the clock at least thirty times before leaving the house at a quarter past twelve.

oOo

By 6:00 Rory felt like they had bought everything humanly possible within the mall, walking out into the limo and looking at all the bags in the trunk of the car, Rory realised that she must have an entirely new wardrobe by this point. Where was she going to put all of these clothes?

When they arrived back at the 'crap shack', Stephanie was waiting on the porch swing for them to arrive. She ran up to car and insisted she help carrying in the bags, saying that she needed to help and see the goodies. Francine graciously accepted an invitation to come in for some coffee. Once inside they took a quick tour of the house and Francine quickly went over a few things that the lawyers needed to discuss with her. The whole process seemed very tedious to Rory who took in everything that her Grandmother told her. She was not looking forward to meeting these lawyers anytime soon.

When Francine saw her Granddaughter look overwhelmed by everything that was going on she stopped and smiled placing her hands on Rory's before telling her that everything would be ok and over and done with before she knew. After setting a weekend in a fortnight's time to go on a proper shopping trip for 3 days in New York, Francine left leaving Rory and Steph to make enough room for Rory's new wardrobe.

Halfway through putting the clothes away Steph turned around frustrated, "Hey, you guys don't use the kitchen maybe your Mum will let you turn it into a wardrobe, your gonna need it at this rate and just think what your wardrobe will look like after you come back from New York."

At 7:30 the girls gave up and simply folded the rest of the clothes and placed all of the shoes on the floor at the end of her bed. Steph insisted that she be allowed to pick out Rory's outfit for the evening. Lorelai wouldn't be coming back tonight, she said to Rory that she was going out for the night and would fill her in, in the afternoon. Rory was going to stay at Steph's tonight so that they could go to school together the next morning, the boys were meeting them there so that they could hang out and didn't have to stay in their own houses.

Steph dressed Rory up like her own life sized Barbie, finally deciding on a pair of skinny cut jeans and a simple tank top with a pattern of swirls of blue in different shades and designs. She pulled back Rory's hair and gave her a once over before deeming her suitable to leave.

By the time that they arrived at Stephanie's the boys were already there waiting in her room, playing video games and laughing at Colin's third loss in a row.

"Ahem" Steph cleared her throat and Colin, Logan and Finn's heads all snapped to attention when they realised that the girls had arrived. Finn went to get up when Rory came behind the couch and pulled him into a hug from behind. He turned his head and kissed her head before whispering to her, to get over there with him.

"And what if I don't?" she said hoping to bait him, she watched his face turned into a pout and sighed dramatically, as she went to sit on the floor in front of him, Rory felt a pair of hands take her waist and pulled her onto someone's lap.

She turned to see a smirk on Finn's face before he tutted and asked, "Where did you think you were going love?"

"Well you know that Logan gets jealous when I spend too much time with you," she said sticking out her tongue at Finn before his lips came down on hers. She let her tongue move into his mouth and Finn let out a low moan from his throat, before behind next to them Colin, Logan and Stephanie all began to make retching noises at the couple.

"What are we auditioning for 'Drop Dead Fred' or something, because you guys have the barfing thing down just right, what's next are you going to start snot flicking?" Rory said in a terrible British accent and winking at Steph who had a brilliant smile on her face.

Steph went to get up, "Hey Logan, Colin why don't you guys come with me to bring up the lollies and ice-cream." She said shooting a knowing glance at Rory who mouthed a thankyou.

"Yeah, like you need two of us for that job," Logan said grumbling as he and Colin got up to follow Steph out of the room.

Once they had left Finn and Rory burst out laughing until Rory was holding her sides and Finn was left chuckling to himself at what had just taken place. Apparently both parties had completely forgotten the presence of their friends after Rory had entered the room. Once they had gotten their composure together Finn tuned to Rory with a hard look in his eyes.

"Hello, Rory." He said, smiling at the beautiful girl sitting in front of him.

"Hey Finny," she said ignoring Finn's groan at the use of the nickname.

His eyes quickly roamed her body as he looked up with laughter in his eyes. "Had a fun day shopping then? I see that Steph managed to get her claws into you."

"Apparently I wasn't allowed to leave the house until I had gotten her approval and you know Steph, it's easier if she just does it herself."

"Very true darling but I must say you do look ravishing," Finn said as his hands made their way up her thighs and to her hips in order to pull her close to him.

Before they could move again the door slammed open to Colin hauling in a bag of lollies, "Oh come on we gave you 15 minutes." He said emptying the bag onto the table in front of Steph's T.V. "How you two are going to get to sleep after eating all of this I have no idea." He said watching Steph and Logan come in with ice-cream and popcorn.

oOo

They spent the rest of the night talking, eating and watching movies, Finn kept whispering a running commentary of the movie in Rory's ear until she threatened to move and went to get up. Finn pulled her closer to him, placing her firmly in his lap telling her she wasn't going anywhere. By twelve o'clock the girls headed to bed after yawning loudly and receiving orders from the boys that they could do this again next weekend.

oOo

The morning had gone quite smoothly so far, Rory's first classes went by quickly, she had gotten an A on her American History paper and was sitting down to lunch when her phone rang. Colin's name flashed on the screen and she picked the phone up warily.

"Rory?" he said before she even had time to say her greeting, his tone was anxious and Rory needed to pull the phone away from her ear from the sheer volume of his voice.

"What's wrong Colin?" she said her voice laced with concern. "And please don't shout at me again." She added before he could speak.

"I have a really big problem." He said as Rory's mind went into overdrive wondering what it could be.

"Are you alright? What's wrong Colin?" Rory asked again trying to sound as calm as possible although she wasn't quite sure that she pulled it off.

"I was shopping for Stephanie's Christmas present," he said as Rory let out the breath she had been holding. "I searched for hours on end and nothing I found was good enough and it just hit me…I'm in love with her. I mean I knew I loved her before but you know it was Stephanie so I figured it was just friendly and then it kind of escalated a bit form there and I know I told Logan and Finn that I was in love with her but now…Rory I love her. I love her and she will never know 'cause I have no balls and will never be able to get her a present let alone tell her how I feel. I'm freaking out here." He said so fast that Rory wasn't sure he had taken more than one breath.

Rory saw Steph entering the cafeteria and offered her a small wave before coming back to her conversation with Colin, "Ok Colin she's coming over here so I can't talk for long but here's what we're going to do okay? Meet me tomorrow after school and we will go and find Steph the perfect gift, I'll call you later tonight so that we can figure out a bit more, but for now just try and relax, call Finn and Logan I'm sure they are bored as hell right now and I'll call you later tonight okay?"

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou, Rory you are an angel, I'll talk to you later, and Rore?" he said hurriedly.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for this?" with that he hung up the phone and Rory only heard the dial tone in her ear.

Rory had always been concerned that Colin didn't like her as much as the others did, it made her feel good to think that he had called her for help when he needed it. She turned back to Steph and enjoyed the rest of her lunch.

oOo

When Rory walked out of school in the afternoon she was shocked to see her mothers jeep parked at the front of the school waiting for her. She walked up to her mother and looked at her face seeing a huge grin plastered on it.

"Did you do something dirty?" Rory asked as a greeting.

"Is that how you greet your own mother, child?" Lorelai said with a mock-affronted look on her face.

"You did, didn't you?" Rory pressed again already half knowing the answer.

"Maybe." Said Lorelai getting into the Jeep and waiting for Rory to do the same.

This was going to be an interesting afternoon.

* * *

_Thankyou everyone for reading my story:_

_I have absolutely no concept of school terms in America, and no idea about any of the stores in New York. If anyone can help me for the next few chapters I would greatly appreciate it and you would get a snippet of the next chapter in advance._

_Also do you guys want Lorelai to be with Luke or Chris for this story, let me know._

_Thanks guys_

_Kat xxx_


	7. Operation Dumbo Drop

I'm sorry, i know i was meant to update on Wednesday but i've been so busy. i promise i will get the next chapter out as soon as i can, but that is looking to be about next week. thanks to the people that reviewed

Disclaimer: i don't own gilmore girls or any of the characters

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Lorelai and Rory spent the first ten minutes of the ride home in silence, until Rory finally gave up and turned to her mother.

"Okay," she said evident frustration hanging on her voice, "What happened last night? You can't just pull a Mr Bean and not talk to me about this, so spill, where were you?"

"So promise that you won't get angry and maybe I'll tell you." Lorelai answered amused by her daughter's obvious anticipation.

"Mum!"

"See that's what I'm talking about." She said with a smile on her face before seeing the look her daughter was giving her. "Okay, okay settle down." Lorelai took a minute to collect her thoughts before she continued, "So you know how the other week I helped Luke fix the fridge?"

"Oh and by help you mean when I came home to see Luke with his head behind the fridge and you sitting at the table trying to see how many marshmallows you can shove into your mouth?"

"I was providing comic relief."

"He had earplugs in mum and then you snuck up on him and made him hit his head when you screamed that you couldn't set a world record because we ran out of marshmallows. Dogs were barking."

"I can't believe we didn't have more marshmallows than that in the entire house. I bought an extra 8 bags from Doose's that day."

"MUM!" Said Rory, trying to get her mother to focus on the original conversation.

"Yes, sorry so anyway I went to Luke's yesterday for my after breakfast jolt."

"How many after breakfast jolts?"

"That's not the point."

"Okay continue." Said Rory knowing too well how much coffee her mother would have had.

"As I was saying I went into Luke's and he handed me a bag of marshmallows…" she said in a dramatically scandalous voice, as if waiting for her daughter to freak out.

"And…?"

"And what?" Lorelai asked in an all too innocent voice.

"Why does that mean you were out all night?"

"Well, High inquisitor, he kind of asked me on a date. She said her voice muffled so much that it came out as more of a grunt but Rory got the gist of it."

"So you went?"

"Yes I went, what did you think? That I was just walking around the town square or something."

"Well…"

"Don't' answer that … it happened once, okay once. You should know by now to remind me that I cannot have the founders day punch."

Instead of answering her mother's last statement Rory merely rolled her eyes and continued. "So what happened? Wait! We're still aloud into Luke's aren't we? I swear if you get us kicked out again…"

"Yes we're still aloud into Luke's. I was nice the whole night, but it was weird, we got out of dinner and just burst out laughing at how awkward it was."

"If you didn't get any how come you were smiling like that before?" Rory asked, confused by this point of the conversation.

"Because we didn't get kicked out of Luke's."

"Uhuh." Said Rory unconvinced. "So we're still aloud at Luke's."

"Yes yes." Said Lorelai off handed, suddenly getting an evil grin on her face. "Oh by the way Jess is back." She said in a very calmly peering at her daughter to gauge her reaction.

"Good for him. Where did you stay last night?" said Rory thrown off by the sudden mention of Jess.

Rory and Jess were close friends up until he was 9 and his mother moved to New York with her latest husband. He had left Rory behind without so much as telling her he was leaving the next day. Every now and again a letter would come telling how he was going and the latest update with his family and new friends, but she never wrote back. She knew she was being petty but she wanted him to miss her like she missed him. It had been 3 years since he last came to visit his uncle, a trip on which she successfully avoided him, except for the first time she discovered he had come to visit.

"I stayed at Suki's." she said not really concerned with their previous conversation anymore. "Are you ever going to forgive him hun? He's tried to make it right but you keep pushing him away again. And I know for a fact there is a humongous present at the diner all wrapped up with a little tag that says, _Dear Rory_, on it." She said the smile returning to her face.

"Mum" said Rory clearly annoyed and slightly hurt by her mother's pursuit of the conversation.

"Come on Rory, he's trying to make it right."

"Maybe he should have thought about that before he just left then."

"What was he supposed to do his parents were moving?"

"He could have told me!" said Rory half yelling at Lorelai by this point.

"He was heart broken hun. It would have killed him to see you upset over him. Cut him some slack, he was 9 years old and loved you to pieces. He didn't want to see you hurt."

"Then it's a good thing I haven't seen hi in seven years isn't it?" said Rory effectively ending the conversation when Lorelai turned back to the road and continued driving.

Rory stared out of the window, willing herself not to cry, her eyes were stinging and her heart felt like it was dying. She felt like her heart had both stopped and beat so fast it hurt at the same time. I promised myself I wouldn't cry over this anymore. She thought quickly wiping the solitary tear that had escaped her eye.

This really was turning out to be an interesting afternoon.

oOo

The car trip was long and silence between the two girls was exhausting. Rory's hands started tingling and began to shake as she reached for the door to let herself out of the car as they pulled up in the drive. As she got out of the car she took hardly two steps before she collapsed on the ground seeing nothing but darkness.

oOo

Hours later Rory woke up in her bed with her mother sitting in the lazyboy she had dragged into the room. Looking over at the clock Rory saw that it was 2 in the morning. _She must have fallen asleep in here_. She thought of the many times when she was young and got sick that her mother was found sleeping in her room just like she is now or had taken Rory up to stay in her bed for the night.

Slowly Rory got up and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water, hearing a sound coming from the living room she paused and quietly made her way to find the source of the noise. As she entered the room she found a person lying in the couch with the blanket fastened securely over their head. _Why is someone sleeping on the couch?_ She thought as she reached for the top of the blanket.

She slowly pulled the blanket back and saw Finn's angelic face before her, suddenly realising that one of his legs was over the top of the couch and half of the top of his body was bout to fall off.

"Of course it's you who else would sleep like this?" she whispered to herself trying to make him more comfortable, when he groaned in protest she stopped and he moved himself.

Rory smiled to herself and lifted the blanket before sliding in next to Finn, instinctively his arm went around her waist to pull her closer to him and she smiled.

"Rory," he said, his voice heavy with sleep. Rory froze scared she had woken him up, when she realised he had said her name in his sleep. She turned awkwardly in his arms to face him and a small smile crept across her face as she watch his contented grin. Slowly sleep overcame her and she fell asleep.

oOo

Lorelai woke in the morning to find Rory's bed empty. Worried, she quickly climbed off the chair and raced into the kitchen. _Surely if she had woken up before me she would have put some coffee on_. She thought racing up to her room to check if she had climbed into her bed. She started to panic when she couldn't find Rory there.

"Rory?" she screamed through the house begging to get a response from her daughter. "Rory? Answer me or a swear to god…" she stopped when she heard a loud thump come from downstairs. She ran down the stairs to find Rory rolling on the floor holding the knee she had obviously just fallen on.

"This should have been the first place I looked." She said laughing at her daughters Bambi eyed face. "He slept through the Dumbo Drop?"

"Yeah, I think he'd sleep through an earth quake. When did he get here?"

"About half an hour after I called him, I think he must have broken every speeding law in the country to get here. He was sitting up with you for god knows how long until I forced him to go and sleep on the couch." She said smiling at the boy sleeping on her lounge.

As Rory got up and sat on the lounge Finn suddenly threw out his arms and pulled her over to him. As Rory screamed she managed to turn around and hit him playfully on the arm.

"Finn, I thought you were asleep."

"I was Doll, until I heard your butt hit the floor and Lorelai laughing as she came down the stairs."

"So you were eavesdropping?" Lorelai said in an appalled voice looking like she was about to crack up again.

"What time is it? I have to get ready for school. I completely forgot to call Colin last night. Crap."

Finn pulled Rory back and kissed her on the side of the head. "Rore you can't go to school today, call Steph and tell her to get your work form your classes. And by the way, you were passed out so I think it would be a bit hard for you to call Colin."

"But I have to go to school." Said Rory struggling to get out of Finn's arms.

"Rory you collapsed yesterday, for no reason I might add." Said Lorelai, concerned for her daughter. "You aren't going to school today, stay home watch movies with your boytoy, I'll just be phone call away if you need anything." At that she got up and went upstairs to have a shower before heading into work.

"You heard your Mum, you have to stay home with me." Said Finn a huge smile gracing his face. When he saw the pout Rory had on he kissed her quickly and pulled her closer into his chest. "Come on Rore there's only two weeks until Christmas break anyway. I thought you finished your half-yearlies early?"

"We did but I just don't wanna miss anything."

"You won't love, Steph can get everything for you and the faster you get better the faster you can go back."

"But I'm not sick."

"Rory you aren't going, you're staying home with me for today at least."

Rory looked as if she was deciding whether or not she could afford to take the time off when Finn pulled at her side so she turned to face him. "You have no choice love so I don't see why you're trying to make up your mind." He said before lowering his lips to hers, when he heard a groan escape her lips he pulled back and saw Lorelai wink at him from the top of the stairs.

"Hey don't let me interrupt. I'm just about to leave anyway, I just needed to ask Rory something," she said holding up her shoes. "Allison or Patrice?" She said holding up a pair of black pumps and a pair of strappy black sandals with a ballet ribbon strap to go up her leg.

"Allison so you can take them off behind the counter."

"Thanks hun," she said chucking the other shoes back into her room, before rushing down the stairs, "Do you think I've stalled enough that Michel will start yelling at me in French again?"

"I think you have a pretty good chance of that any day mum."

"Good," she said smiling evilly. "Bye sweets." She said kissing Rory on the head and hugging Finn.

"Bye Mum."

"Bye Lorelai."

After the door had closed behind Lorelai Finn immediately turned to Rory and out his hand under her chin pulling her head up to his. "You're so beautiful love," he said before placing his lips lightly on hers. Before Rory could deepen the kiss Finn began to kiss down Rory's jaw and slowly down her neck, eliciting a moan from Rory, which only encouraged his actions. As he got to the base of her neck he slowly kissed and sucked at her pulse point while listening to her breath becoming ragged.

When Rory couldn't take it anymore she pulled Finn back up to her lips and immediately deepened the kiss, wrestling with his tongue her hands went up and locked into his hair and slid down to tickle and massage the back of his neck.

Before it could go any further Rory got up and walked to the bathroom turning on the shower, while Finn went to the kitchen to put on a pot off coffee. Once she had showered and changed she went and poured herself a cup of coffee and felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist.

"You really shouldn't leave a guy like that." Said Finn whispering into her ear, before kissing behind her ear and down her neck.

"Mum always said, 'You should always leave 'em wanting more'. It's not like you missed me though right?" She said turning to face him and bringing her lips to his. She smiled as she pulled away. "I should go call Colin."

"It hurts that you think about other men when we're together love. How will I be able to go on." He said grabbing his heart and kneeling in the middle of the kitchen, "No don't worry about me, you go on … live as best you can, just please remember me." He finished as he fell with his head on his knees.

"I hope that you took drama at the millions of schools you went to." Said Rory walking into her room to grab her phone.

Finn went to have a shower, and walked into Rory's room to hear her talking on the phone with who he assumed to be Colin.

"Colin…"

"…"

"Colin, listen to me! It will be fine, we'll find something perfect for her okay?" said Rory looking concerned and Finn knew it wasn't just for Colin.

"…"

"Colin have you ever thought of just telling her?"

"…" Rory pulled the phone away from her ear and Finn could hear a muffled yelling coming form the other end of the phone.

"No, I'm not crazy Colin."

"…"

"Hey, there's no need for that, I'm only trying to help. We'll go and find something tonight, I don't think I'll still be on house arrest by then. Is it ok if Finn comes?"

"…"

"No he won't do that again, and I'm sure he'll keep his clothes on this time."

"…"

"From what I hear it happened once." She said looking up and winking at Finn.

"…"

"Well Colin, what you boys do in your own time is your business. I'll call you later and tell you the time and everything okay? In the mean time just relax."

"…"

"You need to stop yelling at me if you want me to help you Colin."

"…"

"Okay bye." She said before dropping the phone on the bed and pulling Finn down with her.

oOo

As the day wore on, Rory and Finn watched several movies and had completely demolished 8 bags of lollies that were hiding in the cupboard. At four they headed out of Star Hollow to meet Colin n Hartford.

"Are you sure you're okay Rore?" said Finn looking at Rory as if she were about to break.

"For the last time Finn, I'll be fine, this is what girls are meant to do right? Shopping you should know, I'm sure Steph has dragged you with her a zillion times."

"Yeah don't remind me." He said, flashing her a grin that made her heart flutter. Rory reached over and took the hand that he didn't have on the wheel and laced their fingers together.

Finn looked at their hands and lifted them to kiss the back of Rory's hand before resting them on the centre console.

oOo

When they arrived in Hartford, Colin had already called three times to find out where they were.

"Geez Colin your gonna need a tranquilliser to get to sleep tonight." Said Rory walking up to hug a flustered Colin.

"It's not the time Rory." Said Colin hugging her back and looking over at Finn who was looking at his behind.

"Uh Finny darling, I would appreciate it if you would check out other people subtly I don't need to see." Said Rory putting her arm around Finn and dragging the boys down the street with her.

"Sorry love I was just looking for the stick that seems to be shoved up there." He said kissing Rory's temple and glancing at Colin. "You know that no-ones butt could compare to yours."

"And on that note…" said Rory walking into a small café.

Colin gave Finn a puzzled look and went in after her.

"Do you have any idea what you want to get her Colin?" said Rory sitting down at a table by the window of the small circular café.

"Why would I get you to help me if I did?" he said looking irritated.

Rory just shrugged and drank the coffee the waitress put down in front of her. "Maybe it doesn't have to be something big." She said looking at him.

"What? You know Steph loves her Christmas presents."

"Yeah, but what if you did something rather than bought her something?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno … proclaim your undying love for her?" said Finn out of nowhere before he began staring out the window.

"I can't do that." Said Colin, his face looking so broken that Rory wanted to reach out and hug him. Instead she grabbed his hand to make him look her in the eye.

"Colin, why not? You've loved her for who knows how long. Maybe its time you tell her. Make the big gesture, like that sexy British guy on Chasing Liberty…" she said offhandedly. "Sorry not the point. Anyway, maybe its time to tell her."

"Rory I can't. It's not like you and Finn, you both knew what you wanted and went out and got it. But Steph and I are so different, she's beautiful and smart and funny. Everything I could only ever dream of having, she takes my breath away when I walk into the room and see her there. She helps me when my family becomes overbearing, she always picks up the phone and talks no matter what time it is just because I want to hear her voice."

"Colin, why do you think she does that?" said Rory, looking as if she was close to crying from Colin's confession. "She loves you, everyone can see it. But I guess you have to look at it form a distance. Tell her and maybe you'll get something you've always wanted."

"What she says no?"

"It's never a sure thing Colin. You have to make her say yes, prove that you're worth it. She'll never know how you feel unless you tell her."

"Help me?"

"We'd be glad to… wouldn't we Finn," she said jabbing him in the ribs.

"Yeah mate anything you need."

For the next 2 hours they sat there planning Steph's present, and a backup…just in case. By the time Rory and Finn returned to Stars Hollow they were exhausted, the had searched everywhere and found Steph a beautiful silver watch with a multi bracelet band and diamonds encrusted around the square face.

Lorelai called form the Inn and said she had to take over the night shift, because Toby had gotten sick, and asked if Finn was going to stay the night. As they both settled into bed Finn waited until Rory's breathing evened out before pulling her close and falling asleep himself.

* * *

Let me know what you guys think of the chapter. and if anyone can help me out with the school terms in america that would be great

xxx kat


	8. Meeting the Grinch

I'm sorry that it has take so long guys. I have had the biggest mental blank when it comes to this chapter. I have written most of the next but this has been a hard one to nutt out.

Thanks to my reviewers, i love you guys. thanks for sticking by me.

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Christmas came up on everyone before they knew it. Rory had gone to New York with Francine and an eager Steph who had begged for days to be allowed to come along. It wasn't as bad as she had first thought. Lorelai and Rory spent the week before clearing out the hall closet to make way for Rory's new wardrobe, which Lorelai was prepared to take full advantage of.

Everything was settled with Francine and Straub's lawyers and they were preparing to make the announcement on the Hayden's annual Christmas ball.

School had flown past, even when Paris had insisted that the teacher assign extra homework for the holiday. By the time Christmas eve had arrived the house had been decked in red and green, every banister had ribbons and tinsel wound around them and every doorway held wreaths and strings of popcorn. The outside was decked in lights and cardboard cut outs that Lorelai had conned Luke into putting on the roof. The mailbox had even been replaced with one that sang when it opened.

When Finn, Colin and Logan walked into the kitchen they saw Rory and Steph stringing still more popcorn…as if there wasn't enough. Listening to Christmas carols and wearing Santa hats while they laughed and joked.

"Well someone has gotten into the spirit of things haven't they?" said Logan looking around the home that had been transformed into something you would imagine to be in Santa's toyshop. _Well heck, my parents aren't even going to be home for Christmas and look at what Lorelai has done_.

"Hello, boys." Said Lorelai absentmindedly as she walked into the kitchen while sorting through the mail. She was clad head to toe in red, green and white. Her sweater had a picture of Rudolf drinking with Santa, her white pants had tiny pictures of bells and baubles around all the seams and her green heels sported red ribbon and bells that jingled as she walked.

"Lorelai, lovely to see you again darling." Said Finn walking forward to shake her hand.

As Lorelai finally looked up from the mail she did a double take of Finn, turned to the other boys and finally looked at Steph and Rory. She slowly backed away from Finn while continuing to look Finn up and down with an appalled expression.

"Do you see this atrocity?" she said gesturing to Finn.

"Atrocity?" said Colin.

"I know cool word huh, you know how all these T.V. shows say that you can get word of the day toilet paper well I found some." She said looking proud.

"You have no idea how long it took her." Said Rory rolling her eyes. "So what's wrong with Finn Mum?"

"Do you not see my blind daughter?" she said stomping over to Finn. "Brown … Grey … Black." She said tugging his shirt and pants and finally kicking his shoes. "Boring … Boring … Boring!" she said repeating her actions and facing him. "Do you have no shame? You can't go out this close to Christmas and not have one bit of red or green on you."

"I apologise Lorelai, Christmas festivities aren't really a high priority in my house. It's just the one day of the year that we eat together rand try not to argue, before the decorators come in and take everything away."

"Hmm, yeah I remember, I did everything I could to bring out Christmas, one year I tried to get the maid to let me string popcorn for the tree and she went and told Mum. I was grounded for three weeks and we ended up having Christmas late that year. I tried everything, cardboard cut outs of Santa, egg nog, elf ears, I even got a deer from the park and stuck antlers on it and put it in the backyard. The worst year though was when I snuck away and got a picture with Santa, I thought they were going to set a new world record with how loud they were yelling." She said smiling at the memory. "I still have that picture."

"Haha I'm sure that Emily would have loved that." Said Finn smiling and going over to kiss Rory.

"Hey handsome." Rory said taking off her Santa hat and putting it onto Finn's head.

"Yay much better." Lorelai screamed jumping up and down.

A knock came at the back door and everyone suddenly went silent as Babette walked in. "Hey sugar, is everything okay over here?" she said spotting the boys standing in the kitchen. "Oh hello boys." she called winking and walking out without an answer.

The girls just started laughing while the boys stood shocked, Finn pouted and opened his arms waiting for Rory to come over to him. She smiled and made her way over into his open arms, "You don't have to put on a face like that for a hug you know."

"How about a kiss then?"

Rory looked thoughtful before answering, "What else you got?"

Finn just shook his head and leant down to kiss her. "I'm disappointed love, you didn't jump up and defend me honour."

"Me honour? Really, Finn how do you get into those prestigious schools you're parents send you to?"

"My charm and devilishly handsome good looks." He said striking a pose. Rory just rolled her eyes and went to sit back down again, but not before Finn slid into her chair pulling her onto his lap. She turned and glowered at him before he wrapped his arms tightly around her and placed kisses on the back of her neck.

Rory just rolled her eyes and went back to stringing while Lorelai and Colin were having a whispered conversation to each other shooting glances at the table now seating Rory, Finn, Logan and Stephanie. Lorelai walked over to the fridge and pulled out a can of whipped cream, while Colin reached up over the stove to pull down the cling wrap. He opened it and handed one end to Lorelai before running around the table encasing the four kids in cling wrap.

Lorelai was laughing hysterically and took the whipped cream can shaking it and spraying it on the top of each head she passed. The kitchen erupted in screams and promises of revenge.

"Mum, you ruined mine and Steph's hair." Said Rory with the classic Gilmore pout plastered on her face. Finn cleared his throat loudly, "Oh yeah and Logan's hair, imagine how long it must take him in the morning." She said grinning and turning to see Finn's face.

"Getting Blondie was just the cherry on top," she said grabbing a cherry of the table where the girls were threading and dropping it on Logan's head. When no one laughed she just bowed, "Thankyou, thankyou I'll be here 'til Tuesday."

Lorelai went over to the kitchen draw and pulled out a butcher's knife. Everyone's eyes widened at the knife she wielded and they rounded on Colin.

"Stop her!"

"What do you think you're doing just standing there man? Get us out before she kills us."

"Colin save me."

"Colin can you please go to the same draw and get the scissors that my mother obviously missed?" Rory said calmly rolling her eyes at her mother's manic expression.

Once everyone was free of their restraints Rory directed Logan and Finn to the bathrooms, while Steph and herself were heading out the door to shower at Babette's. She turned to her mother, "You're cleaning this up you know." She said sternly as Lorelai frowned.

"Yes Mum."

"Don't give me that look young lady, you and Colin started this so you can clean iup the mess you made."

Lorelai giggled and Rory raised her eyebrow in response. "You called me young lady." She called as Rory and Steph made their way over to Babette's.

The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging even more Christmas decorations in the already overstuffed house, watching a Christmas movie marathon and singing Christmas carols as they came on around them. The businesses in town had all closed for the holidays, so there was nothing to find outdoors to entertain themselves.

Lorelai had heard of Logan's plans to spend Christmas alone, his sister was visiting his grandparents and his parents were off on a vacation, somewhere in the world. Of course Lorelai had done everything but force Logan to stay, saying that she wouldn't be opposed to handcuffs and a lovely ball and chain if the occasion arose.

Everyone left the house early that night to make it home in time to make, Francine and Straub's Christmas party, with the exception of Logan who was escorting the Gilmores.

"What's on the menu tomorrow night ladies?" he said winking at Lorelai, who pretended to faint.

"Will you stop hitting on my mother Huntzberger? … I dunno, what do we usually have for dinner Mum?" she said dramatically.

"Well daughter, we'll go down to the homeless shelter, I'm sure they have some soup there, maybe this year we'll be able to get a bread roll. Oh and water, we can't forget about the water they give us."

"Clean." Rory quipped.

"And tasty."

"Okay, okay I get it." Logan rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch facing the TV, which sported a singing Rudolph.

"Good because the water isn't that good. Actually Suki is coming, she's bringing all the food and…"

"Pie" Lorelai contributed.

"Yes Mother, you'll get your pie, sometimes I think that's the only reason you look forward to Christmas dinner."

"Okay troops time to get ready, Logan change in Rory's room. Rory my room stat, I expect to see hair half done by the time I get up there. Lorelai, go get the Mallomars. Okay break."

"Hey how come you get the easy job?" said Rory as she made her way up the stairs.

"Because I don't have a hunky boy toy to look good for. Now move."

After an hour of preparation Rory walked down the stairs and flopped on the couch next to Logan. "You look beautiful Ace."

"Ace?"

"I read some of the articles you wrote for you're school paper."

"Ace reporter, right, got it."

"And thankyou, you look very dashing yourself Mr. Huntzberger."

"I know." He said looking smug, but blushing slightly at the compliment. Rory hit him on the arm lightly and turned to look at what he was watching.

"Frosty the snowman, good choice, well you know, there was a lot to choose from, every channel I turned to had something Christmassy on."

"Gee I wonder why?"

"We should ring and ask them, what's happening." He said laughing when Frosty blew frost at some little kid, "Although it is quality entertainment."

"Alright kiddies let's go." Said Lorelai hopping down the stairs trying to put her shoes on.

"You know we are going to be late right?"

"Perfection takes time dear, we can't help that."

"I'm sure the grandparents will see it that way."

"That's the spirit let's go." Rory just rolled her eyes at Logan, took his hand and pulled him out the door.

By the time they reached the Hayden's they were almost an hour late. The maid answered the door politely and took everyone's coats before leading Rory, Lorelai and Logan into the ballroom.

Lorelai nudged Rory in the ribs, "10:00 an angry old bird is headin' straight towards us, I repeat…"

"Please don't repeat." Rory groaned as she felt Logan chuckle by her side. Lorelai grinned widely at her, "And you don't encourage her." Rory said as she rounded on Logan.

Finn came running up and threw his arms around Rory. "Need air Finn."

"Sorry love, do me a favour?" he asked in a sweet innocent voice.

"Depends what it is?"

"Come pose as my girlfriend, my parents are trying to sell me off to the highest bidder, I think that woman over there is winning." He said pointing to a girl that had her lips plastered to one of the bartenders.

"Lorelai where have you been?" Emily asked coming up to her daughter. "Honestly sometimes we may as well not give you a time, just show up whenever you like. It wouldn't make a difference. Why hello Rory, you look beautiful this evening, doesn't she look beautiful, Finn? Logan?"

"Why yes Mrs Gilmore she looks radiant this evening." Said Finn smiling at Rory.

"You do know I don't have to pose as your girlfriend right?"

"Why you ingenious little minx." He said kissing her before quickly dragging Rory off with him to meet his parents.

"What was that about?"

"Who knows Mum, so you were saying."

"Oh right, there is a lovely man here that your father and I would love you to meet."

"Sorry I can't."

"Why not? Lorelai are you dating anyone, no so you are coming to meet him."

"I am actually mother," Lorelai quickly grabbed Logan's arm and pulled him to her. "Mum this is Logan my boyfriend, see sorry Mum."

Logan just chuckled along, "Lorelai dearest, you said we wouldn't flaunt our love."

"How can we not Schnukums? I want to shout it from the rooftops and tell the whole world."

"Anything to make you happy my sweet."

"Oh how could I be so lucky."

Emily stormed away and Lorelai and Logan were left to laugh at the effect of their outburst, quickly parting as Lorelai found Chris and Logan found Colin.

"Poor Rory, look at her standing next to Finn, she looks like she wants to sink into the floor." Colin said as Logan came to sit down at the bar next to him.

"I'm sure she's trying, I remember the first time I met Finn's old man, he hated me… Still does." Said Logan ordering a drink.

Suddenly Finn's father burst out laughing, "Is he laughing at something she said?"

"Looks like it."

"I've never seen him laugh before, he always been so serious."

"Like a statue." Logan said earning a look from Colin. They continued to talk about Finn's father until, Rory, Steph and Finn came to sit with them at the bar. "Hey guys, um Rory did I see Finn's Dad laugh at you?"

"Nah man he laughed at her joke." Said Finn smiling looking like he would jump up and down if he could.

Steph nearly choked on their drinks, and her Colin and Logan all stared at Rory in awe.

"I know… she won over me old man," said Finn incredulously.

"Obviously this is a great feat, otherwise I'm pretty sure Logan and Colin wouldn't be trying to catch flies with their mouths." Said Rory indifferently.

"Great feat? More like you won over the Grinch." Logan said still in awe.

"The Grinch?"

"It's Christmas who better than the Grinch, whose heart was two sizes to small?" said Logan with a pout.

"Will you dance with me sweets?" Finn asked holding his hand out to Rory. She blushed and took his hand as he led her onto the dance-floor with other dancing couples. She placed her hands around Finn's neck, while his hands settled on her waist.

Rory could feel people's eyes on her as they danced around the floor, at 10:00 Francine stood next to the band ready to make an announcement.

"She wouldn't make the announcement this early would she?" Rory asked Finn, leaning into his side at the thought.

"As many of you know, my Granddaughter Lorelai has joined us tonight, and for good reason. Tonight I would like you all to celebrate the heiress to the Hayden law co-operation Lorelai Leigh Gilmore Hayden."

As the room said her name Rory turned her head to hide in Finn's chest, "Come love, let's go onto the balcony for a moment."

They walked onto the balcony, with Finn pulling slightly at Rory's hand to hurry her retreat, as soon as they stepped out of the ballroom, Rory was swept up into Finn's arms as his hands roamed her body. Behind them Rory heard a groan behind her and she quickly turned around.

"Mum?" she said seeing her mother being pushed up against the wall by a man.

"Rory? This isn't what it looks like."

"Then what is it?" she asked, startled when she saw Luke turn to face her. "Luke? What is going on here young lady?"

"Um well you see I was talking to Luke and he said we should come and get some fresh air."

"Let's go."

"Where?"

"Inside where I can keep an eye on you." Lorelai ducked her head and followed Rory inside.

The rest of the evening went by easily as Lorelai tried to avoid her daughter, tomorrow was Christmas day and everyone had left, except for Logan preparing for the day that was coming.

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Thank you guys I know it seems a little rushed at the end, that's because it is. I promise the next chapter is much, much better than this one. Once i got past this it was much easier to write. I'm sorry, but i did like the start of the chapter.

Thanks guys, til next time

Kat


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